Honore de Balzac

“All humanity is passion; without passion, religion, history, novels, art would be ineffectual.”

“Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence.”

“True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.”

“First love is a kind of vaccination which saves a man from catching the complaint the second time.”

“When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues.”

“The most virtuous women have something within them, something that is never chaste.”

“The smallest flower is a thought, a life answering to some feature of the Great Whole, of whom they have a persistent intuition.”

“Love or hatred must constantly increase between two persons who are always together; every moment fresh reasons are found for loving or hating better.”

“Excess of joy is harder to bear than any amount of sorrow.”

“There is no such thing as a great talent without great will power.”

“Thought is a key to all treasures; the miser's gains are ours without his cares. Thus I have soared above this world, where my enjoyment have been intellectual joys.”

“Suicide, moreover, was at the time in vogue in Paris: what more suitable key to the mystery of life for a skeptical society?”

“The man whose action habitually bears the stamp of his mind is a genius, but the greatest genius is not always equal to himself, or he would cease to be human.”

“The habits of life form the soul, and the soul forms the countenance.”

“If we could but paint with the hand what we see with the eye.”

“What is art? Nature concentrated.”

“Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster that devours everything: familiarity.”

“Love is a game in which one always cheats.”

“In diving to the bottom of pleasure we bring up more gravel than pearls.”

“Political liberty, the peace of a nation, and science itself are gifts for which Fate demands a heavy tax in blood!”