Honore de Balzac Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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A ruler makes use of the majority and neglects the minority, and so he does not devote himself to virtue but to law.
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Compassion is not a popular virtue.
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A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy.
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Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.
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To every object there correspond an ideally closed system of truths that are true of it and, on the other hand, an ideal system of possible cognitive processes by virtue of which the object and the truths about it would be given to any cognitive subject.
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Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.
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Virtue has a veil, vice a mask.
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Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.
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Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.
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Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.
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Self-denial is not a virtue: it is only the effect of prudence on rascality.
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You cannot lift others to virtue on the one hand if you are entertaining vice on the other.
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Virtue consists in doing our duty in the several relations we sustain, in respect to ourselves, to our fellowmen, and to God, as known from reason, conscience, and revelation.
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Opportunity often comes in disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.
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There is explosive power in virtue.
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Teaching and research are not to be confused with training for a profession. Their greatness and their misfortune is that they are a refuge or a mission.
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There is that in the soul of man which must respond to the highest in virtue. It may not respond at once. Human nature can easily be over-faced by examples too remote and austere. Moreover, human nature can easily deny God because the whole race has long been in rebellion against Him. Yet there is that in human nature which calls out to the supreme examples of virtue: owns, as it were, the intention of God who made it, and feels the unmistakable homesickness of the soul.
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Chastity is the most unpopular of the Christian virtues. There is no getting away from it; the old Christian rule is, "Either marriage, with completely faithfulness to your partner, or else total abstinence."
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The Police and the Society of Jesus posses in common the virtue of never forsaking their enemies as friends.
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We hear the words we have spoken, feel our own blow as we give it, or read in the bystander's eyes the success or failure of our conduct.
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Lots of companies don't succeed over time. What do they fundamentally do wrong? They usually miss the future.
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Upon occasion we should go as far as intoxication.... Drink washes cares away, stirs the mind from its lowest depths.... But in liberty moderation is wholesome, and so it is in wine.... We ought not indulge too often, for fear the mind contract a bad habit, yet it is right to draw it toward elation and release and to banish dull sobriety for a little.
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Great minds always tend to see virtue in misfortune.
