If the secret of being a bore is to tell all, the secret of pleasing is to say just enough to be - not understood, but divined.
Remy de Gourmont

Simple ideas lie within the reach only of complex minds.
Remy de Gourmont

Man has made use of his intelligence, he invented stupidity.
Remy de Gourmont

Industry has operated against the artisan in favor of the idler, and also in favor of capital and against labor. Any mechanical invention whatsoever has been more harmful to humanity than a century of war.
Remy de Gourmont

Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion. Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.
Remy de Gourmont

Man associates ideas not according to logic or verifiable exactitude, but according to his pleasure and interests. It is for this reason that most truths are nothing but prejudices.
Remy de Gourmont

In order to understand life it is not only necessary not to be indifferent to men, but not to be indifferent to flocks, to trees. One should be indifferent to nothing.
Remy de Gourmont

Try to put well in practice what you already know. In so doing, you will, in good time, discover the hidden things you now inquire about.
Remy de Gourmont