Honore de Balzac Quotes

However gross a man may be, the minute he expresses a strong and genuine affection, some inner secretion alters his features, animates his gestures, and colors his voice. The stupidest man will often,...

The rout, that dreary review of fashionable fineries, that parade of well-dressed self-infatuations, is one of those English inventions currently the other nations. England seems determined to see th...

Here comes Mamma Vauquerr, fair as a starrr; and strung up like a bunch of carrots. Aren't we suffocating ourselves a wee bit?' he asked, placing a hand on the top of her corset. 'A bit of a crush in...

Was she acting entirely consciously? No: women are always sincere, even in the midst of their most shocking duplicities, because it is always some natural emotion which dominates them. Perhaps, having...

In Paris, when certain people see you ready to set your foot in the stirrup, some pull your coat-tails, others loosen the buckle of the strap that you may fall and crack your skull; one wrenches off y...

We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are.

Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.

To those who have exhausted politics, nothing remains but abstract thought.

True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.

He became...the ideal of that virtue which delights in its own work...doing everything with simplicity and dignity, for he seemed to realize that his objective added nobility to everything he did.

Society bristles with enigmas which look hard to solve. It is a perfect maze of intrigue.

Is there any instinct more deeply implanted in the heart of man than the pride of protection, a protection which is constantly exerted for a fragile and defenceless creature?

If the artist does not fling himself, without reflecting, into his work, as Curtis flung himself into the yawning gulf, as the soldier flings himself into the enemy's trenches, and if, once in this cr...

One should believe in marriage as in the immortality of the soul.

Women are always true, even in the midst of their greatest falsities, because they are always influenced by some natural feeling.

Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster that devours everything: familiarity.

For passion, be it observed, brings insight with it it can give a sort of intelligence to simpletons, fools, and idiots, especially during youth.

There is no such thing as a great talent without great will power.

Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.

Happy? asked Aquilina, with dreadful look, and a smile full of pity and terror. Ah, you do not know what it is to be condemned to a life of pleasure.