Honore de Balzac

Manners are the hypocrisy of a nation.

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

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

Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?

Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

Life would pall if it were all sugar; salt is bitter if taken by itself; but when tasted as part of the dish, it savours the meat. Difficulties are the salt of life.