God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners. – Soren Kierkegaard
To draw it to a fine point, as was done under the Empire… is to give the face of the wearer a factitious and evanescent expression, since the points cannot be kept stiff without the use of a cosmetic, easily detected and soon melted. – Charles Blanc, Art in Ornament and Dress, 1875
