Paul Claudel Quotes

#1. Now I know that at the heart of the universe is joy.

Paul Claudel

#2. There are two ways to shine: to reflect light or produce it.

Paul Claudel

#3. Art imitates nature not in its effects as such, but in its causes, in its 'manner,' in its process, which are nothing but a participation in and a derivation of actual objects, of the Art of God himself.

Paul Claudel

#4. All that passes is raised to the dignity of expression; all that happens is raised to the dignity of meaning. Everything is either symbol or parable.

Paul Claudel

#5. Speak about Christ only when you are asked. But live so that people ask about Christ!

Paul Claudel

#6. Jesus did not come to explain away suffering or remove it. He came to fill it with His Presence.

Paul Claudel

#7. While she was working on Maturity, ... M. Rodin is well aware that people have imagined that he did my sculpture why then do all one can to give credence to these lies.

Paul Claudel

#8. Eighty years old! No eyes left, no ears, no teeth, no legs, no wind! And when all is said and done, how astonishingly well one does without them.

Paul Claudel

#9. Gentlemen, in the little moment that remains to us between the crisis and the catastrophe, we may as well drink a glass of Champagne.

Paul Claudel

#10. Truth has nothing to do with the number of people it convinces.

Paul Claudel

#11. We must not seek happiness in peace, but in conflict.

Paul Claudel

#12. You explain nothing, O poet, but thanks to you all things become explicable.

Paul Claudel

#13. Doctor, do you think it could have been the sausage?

Paul Claudel

#14. Open your eyes! The world is still intact; it is as pristine as it was on the first day, as fresh as milk!

Paul Claudel

#15. The priest has just baptized you a Christian with water; and I baptize you a Frenchman, daring child, with a dewdrop of champagne on your lips.

Paul Claudel

#16. How amazing it is to be alive Anyone who lives and breathes and puts both feet on the ground, What possible reason could he have for envying the gods

Paul Claudel

#17. When man tries to imagine Paradise on earth, the immediate result is a very respectable Hell.

Paul Claudel

#18. Time: all things consume it, love alone makes use of it.

Paul Claudel

#19. The words I use Are everyday words and yet are not the same! You will find no rhymes in my verse, no magic. There are your very own phrases.

Paul Claudel

#20. Every birth is a getting to know.

Paul Claudel

#21. It is fortunate that diplomats have long noses since they usually cannot see beyond them.

Paul Claudel

#22. Intelligence is nothing without delight.

Paul Claudel

#23. The only living socities are those which are animated by inequality and injustice.

Paul Claudel

#24. In a word, poetry can not exist without emotion, or, if you will, without a movement of the soul which regulates the words.

Paul Claudel