Your modest savant smiles as he says to his admirers: What have I done? Nothing. Man does not invent a force, he directs it.
Honore de BalzacIn the silence of their studios, busied for days at a time with works which leave the mind relatively free, painters become like women; their thoughts can revolve around the minor facts of life and penetrate their hidden meaning.
Honore de BalzacBeauty is the greatest of human powers. Any power without counterbalance or control becomes autocratic and leads to abuse and to folly. Despotism in a government is insanity; in woman, fantasy.
Honore de Balzac