Honore de Balzac

Wisdom is that apprehension of heavenly things to which the spirit rises through love.

The motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one.

The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute.

Ideas devour the ages as men are devoured by their passions. When man is cured, human nature will cure itself perhaps.

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

It is as absurd to say that a man can't love one woman all the time as it is to say that a violinist needs several violins to play the same piece of music.

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

The fact is that love is of two kinds, one which commands, and one which obeys. The two are quite distinct, and the passion to which the one gives rise is not the passion of the other.

Many men are deeply moved by the mere semblance of suffering in a woman; they take the look of pain for a sign of constancy or of love.

Unintelligent persons are like weeds that thrive in good ground; they love to be amused in proportion to the degree in which they weary themselves.

Women are tenacious, and all of them should be tenacious of respect; without esteem they cannot exist; esteem is the first demand that they make of love.

Love may be or it may not, but where it is, it ought to reveal itself in its immensity.