For passion, be it observed, brings insight with it; it can give a sort of intelligence to simpletons, fools, and idiots, especially during youth.

— Honore de Balzac

Hope is a light diet but very stimulating.

— Honore de Balzac

I believe in the incomprehensibility of God.

— Honore de Balzac

I do not regard a broker as a member of the human race.

— Honore de Balzac

If we could but paint with the hand as we see with the eye!

— Honore de Balzac

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

— Honore de Balzac

It is only in the act of nursing that a woman realizes her motherhood in visible and tangible fashion it is a joy of every moment.

— Honore de Balzac

Love is the poetry of the senses.

— Honore de Balzac

Manners are the hypocrisy of a nation.

— Honore de Balzac

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

— Honore de Balzac