“Wisdom is the understanding of celestial things to which the Spirit is brought by Love.”

— Honoré de Balzac, Séraphîta (1835), trans. Katharine Prescott Wormeley, Ch. 3

About Honoré de Balzac

1799 – 1850

French novelist, author of "La Comédie humaine".

“Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster which devours everything, that is, familiarity.”

“All human power is a compound of time and patience.”

“Equality may be a right, but no power on earth can convert it into fact.”

“Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.”

“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”

“There is the love of knowing without the love of learning; the beclouding here leads to dissipation of mind.”

“When Life does not find a singer to sing her heart she produces a philosopher to speak her mind.”

“They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.”

“Something the heart must have to cherish, must love and joy and sorrow learn.”