Honore de Balzac Quotes
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The victory always has a lot of parents but the defeat is always an orphan.
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Sects differ more in name than tenets.
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In France everything is a matter for jest. People make quips about the scaffold, about Napoleon's defeat on the banks of The Beresina, and about the barricades of our revolutions. So, at the assizes of the Last Judgment, there will always be a Frenchmen to crack a joke.
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It is quite right what they say: the three most beautiful sights in the world are a ship in full sail, a galloping horse, and a woman dancing.
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God is the author, men are only the players. These grand pieces which are played upon earth have been composed in heaven.
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To be happy, a man must love his wife as she chooses to be loved.
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The more you judge, the less you love.
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Too great a display of delicacy can and does sometimes infringe upon de-cency.
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It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action.
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Nos beaux sentiments ne sont-ils pas les poe sies de la volonte ? Aren't our best feelings poetry of the will?
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How natural it is to destroy what we cannot possess, to deny what we do not understand, and to insult what we envy!
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The greatest joy a petty soul can taste is to dupe a great soul and catch it in a snare.
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Envy lurks at the bottom of the human heart like a viper in its hole.
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Your modest savant smiles as he says to his admirers: What have I done? Nothing. Man does not invent a force, he directs it.
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Passion is born deaf and dumb.
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Science is the language of the temporal world; love is that of the spiritual world. Man, indeed, describes more than he explains; while the angelic spirit sees and understands. Science saddens man; love enraptures the angel; science is still seeking; love has found.
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But also remember: if you have any genuine feelings, hide them like treasure; never let anyone so much as suspect them, or you're lost. Instead of being the executioner, you'll be the victim. And if you ever fall in love, keep that absolutely secret! Never breathe a word until you're completely sure of the person to whom you open your heart. And to protect that love, even before you feel it, learn to despise the world.
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A letter is a soul, so faithful an echo of the speaking voice that to the sensitive it is among the richest treasures of love.
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Self-love is as protective as the Deity; Disenchantment is as perspicacious as a surgeon; Experience is as provident as a mother. Such are the theologic virtues of marriage.
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The smallest flower is a thought, a life answering to some feature of the Great Whole, of whom they have a persistent intuition.
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If certain women walk straight into adultery, there are many others who cling to numerous hopes, and commit sin only after wandering through a maze of sorrows.
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To man, faith; to woman, doubt. She bears the heavier burden. Does not woman invariably suffer for two?
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The monotony of provincial life attracts the attention of people to the kitchen. You do not dine as luxuriously in the provinces as in Paris, but you dine better, because the dishes serve you are the result of mediation and study.
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Modesty is the conscience of the body.