One must astonish the bourgeois.

The cannon thunders - limbs fly in all directions - one can hear the groans of victims and the howling of those performing the sacrifice - it's Humanity in search of happiness

Modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent; it is one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immovable.

Modernity is the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, which make up one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immutable. This transitory fugitive element, which is constantly changing, must not be despised or neglected.

It is an easy and vulgar thing to please the mob, and no very arduous task to astonish them

Modernity signifies the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art of which the other half is the eternal and the immutable.