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About this quote

What does it mean?
Baudelaire needed a concise, vivid medium to convey moral insight while allowing fantasy and suggestion.
In plain terms
He preferred short, striking forms that still let imagination work.
What can you take from it?
Choose brief, evocative formats for moral messages.

Where it applies

  • writing aphorisms
  • creating slogans

Putting it to work

  • use epigrams
  • balance clarity with mystery

Questions to consider

  • How much detail is needed for moral clarity?
  • When does brevity hinder understanding?

Another view

Over‑conciseness may oversimplify complex morals.

More from Charles Baudelaire

  1. Delacroix, Wagner, Baudelaire - all great theorists, bent on dominating other minds by sensuous means. Their one dream was to create the irresistible effect - …

    Permalink to quote #66
  2. Being pre-eminently a moralist, he needed a medium that enabled him to illustrate a moral insight as briefly and vividly as possible. Being an artist and sensu…

    Permalink to quote #68
  3. Baudelaire is the great symbol of l'art pour l'art (art for the sake of art): sickness as beauty. Baudelaire is thus Liberalism in literature, disease as a pri…

    Permalink to quote #69

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