“It is absurd to pretend that one cannot love the same woman always, as to pretend that a good artist needs several… — Honore de Balzac Absurd Copy Share Image
A Creole woman is like a child, she wants to possess everything immediately; like a child, she would set fire to a… — Honore de Balzac Children Copy Share Image
The election of a deputy to the Legislature offers a noble and majestic spectacle comparable only to the delivery of a child.… — Honore de Balzac Children Copy Share Image
Fools gain greater advantages through their weakness than intelligent men through their strength. We watch a great man struggling against fate and… — Honore de Balzac Advantage Copy Share Image
“The viscountess had raised the forefinger of her right hand and made a pretty gesture toward a stool at her feet. There… — Honoré de Balzac Copy Share Image
Le coeur d'une me' re est un ab|"me au fond duquel se trouve toujours un pardon. A mother'sheart isanabyss atthebottomof whichthere is… — Honore de Balzac Forgiveness 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 Accents Copy Share Image
Thought is a key to all treasures; the miser's gains are ours without his cares. Thus I have soared above this world,… — Honore de Balzac Enjoyment Copy Share Image
On the moral plane, true friends enjoy the same protection as the sense of smell confers upon dogs. They scent the sorrow… — Honore de Balzac Animal Copy Share Image
Can you find a man who loves the occupation that provides him with a livelihood? Professions are like marriages; we end by… — Honore de Balzac Career Copy Share Image
We have long struggles with ourself, of which the outcome is one of our actions; they are, as it were, the inner… — Honore de Balzac Action Copy Share Image
Le mariage doit incessamment combattre un monstre qui de v ore tout: l'habitude. Marriage should always combat the monster that devours everything:… — Honore de Balzac Combat Copy Share Image
If certain women walk straight into adultery, there are many others who cling to numerous hopes, and commit sin only after wandering… — Honore De Balzac Adultery Copy Share Image
“This costume, utterly uncouth, seemed to have been invented as a final test of grace, and to show that there was nothing… — Honoré de Balzac Fashion 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 Architect Copy Share Image
All men can bear a familiar, definite misfortune better than the cruel alternations of a fate which, from one moment to another,… — Honore de Balzac Bears Copy Share Image
“You have wavered uncertainly between two systems, between drawing and coloring, between the painstaking phlegm, the stiff precision, of the old German… — Honoré de Balzac Art Copy Share Image
“Ah! Lord God in heaven! how ill Thy world is ordered! Thou hast a Son, if what they tell us is true,… — Honoré de Balzac Lord god Copy Share Image
A woman in the depths of despair proves so persuasive that she wrenches the forgiveness lurking deep in the heart of her… — Honore de Balzac Costumes Copy Share Image
All genuinely noble women prefer truth to falsehood. As the Russians with their Czar, they are unwilling to see their idol degraded;… — 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 Hope Copy Share Image
Liberty begets anarchy, anarchy leads to despotism, and despotism brings about liberty once again. Millions of human beings have perished without being… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
“Some sentiment other than love united these two beings, and inspired with mutual anxiety their movements and their thoughts. Misery is, perhaps,… — Honoré de Balzac Love Copy Share Image
Thinking is seeing… Every human science is based on deduction, which is a slow process of seeing by which we work up… — Honore de Balzac Art 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 Art Copy Share Image
The human heart may find here and there a resting-place short of the highest height of affection, but we seldom stop in… — Honore de Balzac Affection Copy Share Image
Poets and men of action differ: the former yield to their feelings in order to reproduce them in lively colors, and therefore… — Honore de Balzac Action 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
Suffering predisposes the mind to devoutness; and most young girls, prompted by instinctive tenderness, lean towards mysticism, the obscurer side of religion. — Honore de Balzac Girl Copy Share Image
Music is of two kinds: one petty, poor, second-rate, never varying, its base the hundred or so phrasings which all musicians understand,… — 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
“The joy of those noisy and splendid groups was visible; that of Ginevra and Luigi was buried in their bosom. On one… — Honoré de Balzac Happiness Copy Share Image
A murderer is less loathsome to us than a spy. The murderer may have acted on a sudden mad impulse; he may… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
