Theophile Gautier

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

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

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

“Eyes so transparent that through them the soul is seen.”

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

“Books follow morals, and not morals books.”

“What I write is not for little girls.”

“I am one of those for whom superfluity is a necessity.”

“You do not become a critic until it has been completely established to your own satisfaction that you cannot be a poet.”

“The cat is a dilettante in fur.”

“A cat will be your friend, but never your slave.”

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

“Sooner barbarity than boredom.”

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

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

“I am a man for whom the outside world exists.”

“Chance is the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.”

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

“I was born to travel and write verse.”