Danger arouses interest. Where death is involved, the vilest criminal invariably stirs a little compassion.
Honore de BalzacBy dint of making sacrifices, a man grows interested in the person who exacts them. Great ladies, like courtesans, know this truth by instinct.
Honore de BalzacNo society is complete without some victim, a creature to pity, to jeer at, to scorn or to protect.
Honore de BalzacAbove all do not ask that justice be just: It is just, because it is justice. The idea of a just justice could have originated only in the brain of an anarchist.
Honore de BalzacNo hawk swooping down upon his prey, no stag improvising new detours by which to trick the huntsman, no dog scenting game from afar is comparable in speed to the celerity of a salesman when he gets wind a deal, to his skill in tripping up or forestalling a rival, and to the art with which he sniffs out and discovers a possible sale.
Honore de Balzac