Emulation is not rivalry. Emulation is the child of ambition; rivalry is the unlovable daughter of envy. — Honore de Balzac Ambition Copy Share Image
The errors of women spring, almost always, from their faith in the good, or their confidence in the true — Honore de Balzac Confidence Copy Share Image
A mother's happiness is like a beacon, lighting up the future but reflected also on the past in the guise of fond… — Honore de Balzac Fond memories Copy Share Image
Passions are no more forgiving than human laws and they reason more justly. Are they not based on a conscience of their… — Honore de Balzac Conscience Copy Share Image
A husband and wife who have separate bedrooms have either drifted apart or found happiness. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
There are two histories : official history, lying, and then secret history, where you find the real causes of events. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
“If only I could bear all your sorrows for you! . . . Ah! you were so happy when you were little… — Honoré de Balzac Grief Copy Share Image
How natural it is to destroy what we cannot possess, to deny what we do not understand, and to insult what we… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
“Is there any instinct more deeply implanted in the heart of man than the pride of protection, a protection which is constantly… — Honoré de Balzac Copy Share Image
Like most young people, these two attributed to the world their own intelligence and virtues. Youth who knows no failure has no… — Honore de Balzac Character Copy Share Image
Love is like some fresh spring, first a stream and then a river, changing its aspect and its nature as it flows… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Virtue, my pet, is an abstract idea, varying in its manifestations with the surroundings. Virtue in Provence, in Constantinople, in London, and… — Honore de Balzac Abstract Copy Share Image
I declare, on my soul and conscience, that the attainment of power, or of a great name in literature, seemed to me… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Do you know how a man makes his way here? By brilliant genius or by skilful corruption. You must either cut your… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
To have one's mother-in-law in the country when one lives in Paris, and vice versa, is one of those strokes of luck… — Honore de Balzac Country Copy Share Image
“Surely a man must be in a parlours state to excite pity, extremely weak to inspire sympathy, or very evil-looking to make… — Honoré de Balzac Balzac Copy Share Image
Conscience is a cudgel which all men pick up in order to thwack their neighbors instead of applying it to their own… — Honore de Balzac Conscience Copy Share Image
Virtually all men of action incline to Fatality just as most thinkers incline to Providence. — Honore de Balzac Action Copy Share Image
“The deeper the feeling the less demonstrative will be the expression of it.” — Honoré de Balzac Acting Copy Share Image
Love and work have the virtues of making a man pretty indifferent to anything else. — Honore de Balzac Character Copy Share Image
Lovers have a way of using this word, nothing, which implies exactly the opposite. — Honore de Balzac Love Copy Share Image
The most real of all splendors are not in outward things, they are within us. — Honore de Balzac Funny Copy Share Image
“What do we know of the world, of business, or men, or life? Our fathers should think for us!” — Honoré de Balzac Business Copy Share Image
Everything is bilateral in the domain of thought. Ideas are binary. Janus is the myth of criticism and the symbol of genius.… — Honore de Balzac Binary Copy Share Image
Grief ennobles the commonest people because it has its own essential grandeur. To shine with the luster of grief, a person need… — Honore de Balzac Death Copy Share Image
And thus Bureaucracy, the giant power wielded by pygmies, came into the world — Honore De Balzac Bureaucracy Copy Share Image
Hatred like love feeds on the merest trifles. Everything adds to it. Just as the being we love can do no wrong,… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Women? In order to realize how far these charming creatures we idealize can carry their cruelty, we must see them among themselves! — Honore de Balzac Animals Copy Share Image
Love or hatred must constantly increase between two persons who are always together; every moment fresh reasons are found for loving or… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Generally our confidences move downward rather than upward; in our secret affairs, we employ our inferiors much more than our bettors. — Honore de Balzac Affair Copy Share Image
Noble passions are like vices: the more they are satisfied, the greater they grow, Mothers and gamblers are insatiable. — Honore de Balzac Desire Copy Share Image
“Misfortune is a stepping stone for genius, the baptismal font of Christians, treasure for the skillful man, an abyss for the feeble.” — Honore de Balzac Christianity Copy Share Image
Any man, however blase or depraved, finds his love kindled anew when he sees himself threatened by a rival. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Rare is the man who suffers no remorse as he passes from the state of confidant to that of rival. — Honore de Balzac Confidant Copy Share Image
I prefer thought to action, an idea to a transaction, contemplation to activity. — Honore de Balzac Action Copy Share Image
Heaven should be kind to stupid people, for no one else can be consistently. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
“Give what name you like to my presentiments, but I am afraid that my happiness will be paid for by some horrible… — Honoré de Balzac Copy Share Image
An ugly woman, married to King Henry VIII, would have defied the axe and daunted her husband's infidelities. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Materialism and spirituality are two pretty racquets with which charlatans in cap and gown make the same ball fly. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Woman is a most charming creature, who changes her heart as easily as she does her gloves. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
