Quote #0
There are moments when time and space are more profound, and the sensation of existence is immensely heightened.
Charles Baudelaire
About This Quote
The line comes from Baudelaire’s posthumously published notes in the section "Fusées". In a passage describing the "supernatural" as a heightened quality of perception (color, intensity, resonance) unfolding within time and space, he remarks that there are certain moments when time and spatial extent feel deeper and one’s sense of being becomes stronger.
Interpretation
Baudelaire is pointing to rare states of intensified consciousness in which ordinary perception changes: time seems to gain depth, space feels expanded or more resonant, and the person experiences existence more vividly than usual.
Extended Quotation
Il ya des moments de l’existence où le temps et l’étendue sont plus profonds, et le sentiment de l’existence immensément augmenté.
Variations
There are moments of existence at which Time and Duration are more profound, and the Sense of Being is enormously quickened.
There are moments in life when time and extent are more profound, and the feeling of existence immensely augmented.
There are moments of existence when time and expanse are deeper and the sense of existence immensely heightened.
There are moments in one’s existence when time and space are deeper, and the feeling of existence immensely increased.
Misattributions
- Christopher Isherwood
- Sonya Stephens




