1880-1918, Italian-born French Poet, Critic
''Come to the edge,'' He said. They said, ''We are afraid.'' ''Come to the edge,'' He said. They cam. He pushed them… and they flew.
Guillaume Apollinaire – [Fear]
A structure becomes architectural, and not sculptural, when its elements no longer have their justification in nature.
Guillaume Apollinaire – [Architecture]
Artists are, above all, men who want to become inhuman.
Guillaume Apollinaire – [Arts and Artists]
I love men, not for what unites them, but for what divides them, and I want to know most of all what gnaws at their hearts.
Guillaume Apollinaire – [Humankind]
Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.
Guillaume Apollinaire – [Happiness]
The plastic virtues: purity, unity, and truth, keep nature in subjection.
Guillaume Apollinaire – [Nature]
To insist on purity is to baptize instinct, to humanize art, and to deify personality.
Guillaume Apollinaire – [Purity]
Without poets, without artists, men would soon weary of nature's monotony. The sublime idea men have of the universe would collapse with dizzying speed. The order which we find in nature, and which is only an effect of art, would at once vanish. Everything would break up in chaos. There would be no seasons, no civilization, no thought, no humanity; even life would give way, and the impotent void would reign everywhere.
Guillaume Apollinaire – [Arts and Artists]