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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Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.
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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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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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Misfortune is never invited. And it comes and sits at the table without permission and it eats, leaving nothing but bones.
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I am only strong enough for a life of partial virtue.
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No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.
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Of taking what life gave her, she should take what she wanted from life.
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We must widen the circle of our love till it embraces the whole village; the village in its turn must take into its fold the district, the district the province, and so on until the scope of our love becomes co-terminous with the world.
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We have our thoughts, our hopes, our fears, and yet we know that in a moment a change may come over any one of us that will convert a living, breathing human being into a mass of lifeless clay.
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Great minds always tend to see virtue in misfortune.
