Theophile Gautier

If you are worthy of its affection, a cat will be your friend but never your slave.

To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind.

Eyes so transparent that through them the soul is seen.

Critical lice are like body lice, which desert corpses to seek the living.

The word poet literally means maker: anything which is not well made doesn't exist.

Any man who does not have his inner world to translate is not an artist.

It is difficult to obtain the friendship of a cat. It is a philosophical animal... one that does not place its affections thoughtlessly.

Art is beauty, the perpetual invention of detail, the choice of words, the exquisite care of execution.

Yes, the work comes out more beautiful from a material that resists the process, verse, marble, onyx, or enamel.