Honoré de Balzac on writing

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

Persons without minds are like weeds that delight in good earth; they want to be amused by others, all the more because they are dull within.

What is Art, monsieur, but Nature concentrated?

To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say and to finish without knowing what you have written.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712–1778

• Love

Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‘infinitely’ when you mean ‘very’; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

C. S. Lewis1898–1963

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Benjamin Franklin1706–1790

• Reading