Sooner barbarity than boredom.

- Theophile Gautier

I am one of those for whom superfluity is a necessity.

- Theophile Gautier

I was born to travel and write verse.

- Theophile Gautier

Books follow morals, and not morals books.

- Theophile Gautier

Any man who does not have his inner world to translate is not an artist.

- Theophile Gautier

You do not become a critic until it has been completely established to your own satisfaction that you cannot be a poet.

- Theophile Gautier

Yes, the work comes out more beautiful from a material that resists the process, verse, marble, onyx, or enamel.

- Theophile Gautier

Critical lice are like body lice, which desert corpses to seek the living.

- Theophile Gautier

Chance is the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.

- Theophile Gautier

I am a man for whom the outside world exists.

- Theophile Gautier

Art is beauty, the perpetual invention of detail, the choice of words, the exquisite care of execution.

- Theophile Gautier

What I write is not for little girls.

- Theophile Gautier

A cat will be your friend, but never your slave.

- Theophile Gautier

The word poet literally means maker: anything which is not well made doesn't exist.

- Theophile Gautier

Eyes so transparent that through them the soul is seen.

- Theophile Gautier

To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind.

- Theophile Gautier

It is difficult to obtain the friendship of a cat. It is a philosophical animal... one that does not place its affections thoughtlessly.

- Theophile Gautier

The cat is a dilettante in fur.

- Theophile Gautier

If you are worthy of its affection, a cat will be your friend but never your slave.

- Theophile Gautier