Many men are deeply moved by the mere semblance of suffering in a woman they take the look of pain for a sign of constancy or of love.
In order not to make him a fixed idea, a regret, a struggle,—three things which poison life.
Build no barricades when no one attacks you. Don't excite tempests of heart and conscience merely to pacify your conscience and quiet your heart, now ruffled only by a tiny breeze.
What place indeed is there in the shallow petty frivolous thing called society for noble thoughts and feelings?
What moralists describe as the mysteries of the human heart are solely the deceiving thoughts, the spontaneous impulses of self-regard. The sudden changes in character, about which so much has been sa...
The duchess turned on Eugène with one of those insolent stares that envelop a man from head to foot, flatten him out, and leave him at zero.
Se ciascuno pensa solo a se stesso e non si fida che di se stesso, come volete che ci sia coraggio civile, dal momento che questa virtù si basa sulla rinuncia a se stessi? Coraggio civile e coraggio m...
Notre conscience est un juge infaillible, quand nous ne l'avons pas encore assassinée.
A ignorância é a mãe de todos os crimes, porque um crime é, antes de mais, uma falta de raciocínio.
Zor geçen günler vardır, dedim.-Ruhumu okudunuz, dedi. Peki ama, nasıl?- O kadar çok bakımlardan birbirimize benziyoruz ki! diye karşılık verdim. Acı çekmek için de, zevk duymak için de imtiyazlı yara...
The life of a man who deliberately runs through his fortune often becomes a business speculation his friends, his pleasures, patrons, and acquaintances are his capital.
¿No vivimos nosotros también de muertos? Pues ¿qué son las herencias?
Became Secretary to the King's Council, at which time he changed his name to Balzac and added the particle de, both of which denoted nobility. Bernard-François's marriage to Balzac's mother, Anne Laur...
This costume, utterly uncouth, seemed to have been invented as a final test of grace, and to show that there was nothing too ridiculous for fashion to consecrate.
The region is a desert of stones, a solitude with a character of its own, an arid spot, which could only be inhabited by beings who had either attained to absolute nullity, or were gifted with some ab...
Some day you will find out that there is far more happiness in another's happiness than in your own.
Quelque mal que l'on te dise dumonde, crois−le ! il n'y a pas de Juvénal qui puisse en peindre l'horreur couverte d'or et de pierreries.
Pourquoi deux mois de prison au dandy qui, dans une nuit, ôte à un enfant la moitié de sa fortune, et pourquoi le bagne au pauvre diable qui vole un billet de mille francs avec les circonstances aggra...
Our heart is a treasury; if you pour out all its wealth at once, you are bankrupt.
Misfortune is a kind of talisman whose virtue consists in its power to confirm our original nature; in some men it increases their distrust and malignancy, just as it improves the goodness of those wh...