The first moments of sleep are an image of death; a hazy torpor grips our thoughts and it becomes impossible for us to determine the exact instant when the “I,” under another form, continues the task of existence.
—Gerard de Nerval
Topics: Sleep
The enthusiasm of old men is singularly like that of infancy.
—Gerard de Nerval
Topics: Enthusiasm
Each flower is a soul opening out to nature.
—Gerard de Nerval
The tree of knowledge is not the tree of life! And yet can we cast out of our spirits all the good or evil poured into them by so many learned generations?. Ignorance cannot be learned.
—Gerard de Nerval
Topics: Knowledge
Our dreams are a second life. I have never been able to penetrate without a shudder those ivory or horned gates which separate us from the invisible world.
—Gerard de Nerval
Topics: Dreams
I have always differentiated between two types of friends; those who want proofs of friendship, and those who do not. One kind loves me for myself, and the others for themselves.
—Gerard de Nerval
Topics: Friendship
It has been rightly said that nothing is unimportant, nothing powerless in the universe; a single atom can dissolve everything, and save everything! What terror! There lies the eternal distinction between good and evil.
—Gerard de Nerval
Topics: Things, Little Things
Every flower is a soul blossoming in Nature.
—Gerard de Nerval
Topics: Flowers, Nature, One liners
When the soul drifts uncertainly between life and the dream, between the mind’s disorder and the return to cool reflection, it is in religious thought that we should seek consolation.
—Gerard de Nerval
Topics: Religion, Disorder
How have I been able to live so long outside Nature without identifying myself with it? Everything lives, moves, everything corresponds; the magnetic rays, emanating either from myself or from others, cross the limitless chain of created things unimpeded; it is a transparent network that covers the world, and its slender threads communicate themselves by degrees to the planets and stars. Captive now upon earth, I commune with the chorus of the stars who share in my joys and sorrows.
—Gerard de Nerval
Topics: The Universe
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Alfred de Musset French Poet, Playwright
- Stephane Mallarme French Poet
- Michel Leiris French Surrealist Writer, Ethnographer
- Cesare Pavese Italian Novelist, Poet
- Edgar Quinet French Intellectual
- John Keats English Poet
- Moliere French Playwright
- Ivan Turgenev Russian Novelist, Playwright
- Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) Roman Statesman, Poet
- Arthur Henry Hallam English Essayist, Poet
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