25 Arthur Rimbaud Quotes From the Famous French Poet

Read these Arthur Rimbaud quotes to learn more about the transgressive poet who has influenced modern literature.

Arthur Rimbaud’s full name was Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud.

He was born in Charleville, France, in 1854 and died in Marseille, France, in 1891 at the young age of 37.

Rimbaud was a French poet who wrote his poems with transgressive and surreal themes.

He was a good student but left school in his teenage years to run away to Paris, where he started most of his literary works.

He started an abusive on-and-off relationship with fellow poet Paul Verlaine at age 16.

But by age 20, he had ended his relationship with Verlaine and his career as a poet.

Read these Arthur Rimbaud quotes to learn more about the famous poet.

Best Arthur Rimbaud Quotes

Here are some popular lines from Arthur Rimbaud.

1. “You will always be a hyena.” — Arthur Rimbaud

2. “My wisdom is spurned by chaos.” — Arthur Rimbaud

3. “Genius is the recovery of childhood at will.” — Arthur Rimbaud

4. “A thousand dreams within me softly burn.” — Arthur Rimbaud

5. “By being too sensitive, I have wasted my life.” — Arthur Rimbaud

6. “Life is the farce which everyone has to perform.” — Arthur Rimbaud

7. “Only divine love bestows the keys of knowledge.” — Arthur Rimbaud

8. “But I’ve just noticed that my mind is asleep.” — Arthur Rimbaud

9. “Come from forever, and you will go everywhere.” — Arthur Rimbaud

10. “I shed more tears than God could ever have required.” — Arthur Rimbaud

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Poetic Arthur Rimbaud Quotes

Get a sense of Rimbaud’s poetic work in these lines below.

11. “I could never throw love out of the window.” — Arthur Rimbaud

12. “But, truly, I have wept too much! The Dawns are heartbreaking.” — Arthur Rimbaud

13. “I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down.” — Arthur Rimbaud

14. “One evening I sat Beauty on my knees—And I found her bitter—And I reviled her.” — Arthur Rimbaud

15. “Romanticism has never been properly judged. Who was there to judge it? The critics?” — Arthur Rimbaud

16. “I understand, and not knowing how to express myself without pagan words, I’d rather remain silent.” — Arthur Rimbaud

17. “And from that time on I bathed in the Poem of the Sea, star-infused and churned into milk, devouring the green azures; where entranced in pallid flotsam, a dreaming drowned man sometimes goes down.” — Arthur Rimbaud

More Arthur Rimbaud Quotes

Here are a few more Arthur Rimbaud quotes for you to read.

18. “The northern lights arise like a kiss to the sea.” — Arthur Rimbaud

19. “Whose hearts must I break? What lies must I maintain?” — Arthur Rimbaud

20. “I found I could extinguish all human hope from my soul.” — Arthur Rimbaud

21. “I wrote of silences, of nights, I scribbled the indescribable.” — Arthur Rimbaud

22. “As I descended into impassable rivers, I no longer felt guided by the ferryman.” — Arthur Rimbaud

23. “And, in the dawn, armed with a burning patience, we shall enter the splendid cities.” — Arthur Rimbaud

24. “Now I am an outcast. I loathe my country. The best thing for me is a drunken sleep on the beach.” — Arthur Rimbaud

25. “The poet makes himself a seer through a long, vast and painstaking derangement of all the sense.” — Arthur Rimbaud

What Did Rimbaud Do After He Stopped Writing Poetry?

At 20, Rimbaud decided to travel and pursue a more stable working life.

He traveled all around Europe and then settled in Yemen, where he started a merchant company dealing in coffee and firearms.

At the young age of 37, he was diagnosed with cancer and would die later that year.

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