Quote by Honoré de Balzac: “Human laws are but the copies, more or less imperfect, of the eternal laws.”

Balzac suggests that the rules we create for society are attempts to imitate deeper, universal truths about justice and existence. He implies that human laws are often flawed because they can never perfectly capture these profound, unchanging principles, always falling short of perfection.

This philosophical statement reflects Balzac's engagement with spiritual and mystical ideas, prevalent during a time when French society grappled with the legacy of the Enlightenment and the Catholic Church. It speaks to a search for deeper meaning behind worldly structures.

French novelist whose vast series of linked novels and stories, collectively titled La Comédie Humaine, attempted to capture the full breadth of French society in the early nineteenth century. His work influenced nearly every major realist writer who followed him.