Honore de Balzac Quotes
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For businessmen, the world is a bale of banknotes in circulation; for most young men, it is a woman; for some women, it is a man; and for others it may be a salon, a coterie, a part of town or a whole city.
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He's got his dog trained so that it only does it on newspapers. The trouble is it does it when he's reading the blasted things.
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A girl's coquetry is of the simplest, she thinks that all is said when the veil is laid aside; a woman's coquetry is endless, she shrouds herself in veil after veil, she satisfies every demand of man's vanity, the novice responds but to one.
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Many people claim coffee inspires them, but, as everybody knows, coffee only makes boring people even more boring.
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Unintelligent persons are like weeds that thrive in good ground; they love to be amused in proportion to the degree in which they weary themselves.
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The Parisan, sauntering the streets idly, is as often a man in despair as a lounger.
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The union of a want and a sentiment.
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Journalism is a giant catapult set in motion by pigmy hatreds.
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The impossible is justified by the fact that it occurred.
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Friendships last when each friend thinks he has a slight superiority over the other.
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The key to all sciences is unquestionably the question mark. To the word How? we owe most of our greatest discoveries. Wisdom in life may perhaps consist in asking ourselves on all occasions: Why?
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In intimate family life, there comes a moment when children, willingly or no, become the judges of their parents.
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A flow of words is a sure sign of duplicity.
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Every moment of happiness requires a great amount of Ignorance.
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In the first woman we love, we love everything. Growing older, we love the woman only.
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Genius is answerable only to itself; it is the sole judge of the means, since it alone knows the end; thus genius must consider itself as above the law, for it is the task of genius to remake the law; moreover the man who frees himself from his time and place may take everything, hazard everything, for everything is his by right.
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Does anyone know where these gondolas of Paris come from? [Fr., Ne sait on pas ou viennent ces gondoles Parisiennes?]
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Ah! What pleasure it must be to a woman to suffer for the one she loves!
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To lese-majeste and contempt of court, we must add the crime of lese-million, that fearful indignity we visit on the rich when we expose the impotence of gold.
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A lover always thinks of his mistress first and himself second; with a husband it runs the other way.
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Love passes quickly, and passes like a street Arab, anxious to mark his way with mischief.
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People exaggerate both happiness and unhappiness; we are never so fortunate nor so unfortunate as people say we are.
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Power does not consist in striking with force or with frequency, but in striking true.
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Many men nourish a pride which urges them to conceal their struggles and show themselves only as conquerors.