In diving to the bottom of pleasure we bring up more gravel than pearls. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
And he, like many jaded people, had few pleasures left in life save good food and drink. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Ah! What pleasure it must be to a woman to suffer for the one she loves! — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
To kill a relative of whom you are tired is something. But to inherit his property afterwards, that is genuine pleasure. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Old maids claw as cats do. They not only inflict wounds but experience pleasure in doing so. Nor will they fail to… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
It is very difficult to pass from pleasure to work. Accordingly more poems have been swallowed up by sorrow than ever happiness… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Nothing can afford a woman greater pleasure than to hear tender words of love. The strictest, most devout woman will listen even… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
“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
Ah! how much a mother learns from her child! The constant protection of a helpless being forces us to so strict an… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
How did you get back?' asked Vautrin. 'I walked,' replied Eugene. 'I wouldn't like half-pleasures, myself,' observed the tempter. 'I'd want to… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Woman is a delightful instrument of pleasure, but it is necessary to know its trembling strings, to study the position of them,… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
We must certainly acknowledge that solitude is a fine thing; but it is a pleasure to have some one who can answer,… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
“Man cannot spend all his time doing evil, and even in the company of pirates there must be some sweet moments on… — Honoré de Balzac Copy Share Image
For pain is perhaps but a violent pleasure? Who could determine the point where pleasure becomes pain, where pain is still a… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
The pleasures of love proceed successively from a distich to a quatrain, from a quatrain to a sonnet, from a sonnet to… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
What moralists describe as the mysteries of the human heart are solely the deceiving thoughts, the spontaneous impulses of self-regard. The sudden… — 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
