“Happy?" asked Aquilina, with dreadful look, and a smile full of pity and terror. "Ah, you do not know what it is… — Honoré de Balzac Copy Share Image
Poverty is a divine stepmother who does for youths what their own mothers were unable to do. It introduces them to frugality,… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
The life of a man who deliberately runs through his fortune often becomes a business speculation; his friends, his pleasures, patrons, and… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Virginity, like all monstrosities, possesses special riches and its own absorbing grandeur. Among the chaste, life forces are economized and thus gain… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
If you are to judge a man, you must know his secret thoughts, sorrows, and feelings; to know merely the outward events… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Sometimes, one gesture comprises an entire drama, the accent of one word ruins an entire existence, and the indifference of one glance… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
The events of human life, whether public or private, are so intimately linked to architecture that most observers can reconstruct nations or… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
“He will show you how, during the springtime of life, illusions, innocent hopes, silver threads of gossamer, descend from heaven and return… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Such is life. It is no cleaner than a kitchen; it reeks like a kitchen; and if you mean to cook your… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
All human beings go through a previous life... Who knows how many fleshly forms the heir of heaven occupies before he can… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
“Oh, my friend, when you love, love a woman whom you are sure that you can love always. Never forsake a woman.” — Honoré de Balzac Copy Share
“You have broken the ice, though you have not even scratched its glossy surface: you have placed your hand upon the croup of the… — Honoré de Balzac Copy Share
It is quite right what they say: the three most beautiful sights in the world are a ship in full sail, a galloping horse,… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share
My writing table has seen all my wretchedness, knows all my plans, has overheard all my thoughts. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share
Foppery, being the chronic condition of women, is not so much noticed as it is when it breaks out on the person of the… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share
Rich men are resolved to be astonished at nothing. When they see a masterpiece, they must needs at one glance recognize some flaw to… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share
One can imagine the look the two lovers exchanged; it was like a flame, for virtuous lovers have not a shred of hypocrisy. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share
White and shining virgin of all human virtues, ark of the covenant between earth and heaven, tender and strong companion partaking of the lion… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share
All men can bear a familiar, definite misfortune better than the cruel alternations of a fate which, from one moment to another, brings excessive… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share
The mind, too, has its regimen. It needs gymnastics, just like the body does. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share
Hatred like love feeds on the merest trifles. Everything adds to it. Just as the being we love can do no wrong, so the… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share
