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A review by sriq
Treatise on Elegant Living by Honoré de Balzac
"Elegant living is, in the broad acceptance of the term, the art of animating repose."
"The artist is an exception: his idleness is work, and his work, repose; he is elegant and slovenly in turn; he dons, as he pleases, the plowman's overalls, and determines the tails worn by the man in fashion; he is not subject to laws: he imposes them."
"Both libertine and dandy considered cruelty to be most natural, virtue an artificial construct, and egoism the only law worth obeying. But the dandy differed from the libertine in that he did not embrace this conception of the natural state, and instead chose to celebrate the excesses of artifice."
"Anyone who does not frequently visit Paris will never be completely elegant."
"Nothing resembles a man less than a man!"
"Consider also, madame, that there are revolting perfections."
"Good has but one style; evil a thousand."
"The artist is an exception: his idleness is work, and his work, repose; he is elegant and slovenly in turn; he dons, as he pleases, the plowman's overalls, and determines the tails worn by the man in fashion; he is not subject to laws: he imposes them."
"Both libertine and dandy considered cruelty to be most natural, virtue an artificial construct, and egoism the only law worth obeying. But the dandy differed from the libertine in that he did not embrace this conception of the natural state, and instead chose to celebrate the excesses of artifice."
"Anyone who does not frequently visit Paris will never be completely elegant."
"Nothing resembles a man less than a man!"
"Consider also, madame, that there are revolting perfections."
"Good has but one style; evil a thousand."