Plenty of things in life are superlatively uninteresting; so that it is one-half of art to select from realities those which contain the possibility of poetry. Honore De Balzac
What place indeed is there in the shallow petty frivolous thing called society for noble thoughts and feelings? Honore De Balzac
Only just now she said to me, ‘I am very happy, papa!' When they say ‘father' stiffly, it sends a chill through me; but when they call me ‘papa,' it brings all the old memories back. I feel most their father then; I even believe that they belong to me, and to no one else. Honore De Balzac
Happiness is the inner poetry of women, just as fine clothes are the mask of beauty. Honore De Balzac
You have wavered uncertainly between two systems, between drawing and coloring, between the painstaking phlegm, the stiff precision, of the old German masters, and the dazzling ardor, the happy fertility, of the Italian painters. Honore De Balzac
Political liberty, the peace of a nation, and science itself are gifts for which Fate demands a heavy tax in blood! Honore De Balzac
At each sentence my hostess put her head forward, looking at me with an innkeeper's keen scrutiny, a happy compromise between the instinct of a police constable, the astuteness of a spy, and the cunning of a dealer. Honore De Balzac