In 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 BalzacThere are as many mediocrities exalted through pity as masters decried through envy.
Honore de BalzacWe exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are.
Honore de BalzacGenius is answerable only to itself; it is the sole judge of the means, since it alone knows the end; thus genius must consider itself as above the law, for it is the task of genius to remake the law; moreover the man who frees himself from his time and place may take everything, hazard everything, for everything is his by right.
Honore de Balzac