Envy lurks at the bottom of the human heart like a viper in its hole. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
A beautiful book is a victory won in all the battlefields of human thought. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
The endless legacy of the past to the present is the secret source of human genius. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
The love of nature is the only love that does not deceive human hopes. — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Beauty is the greatest of human powers. Any power without counterbalance or control becomes autocratic and leads to abuse and to folly.… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
If the human heart sometimes finds moments of pause as it ascends the slopes of affection, it rarely halts on the way… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Though the human heart may have to pause for rest when climbing the heights of affection it rarely stops on the slippery… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
The winter's frost must rend the burr of the nut before the fruit is seen. So adversity tempers the human heart, to… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
Perhaps it is only human nature to inflict suffering on anything that will endure suffering, whether by reason of its genuine humility,… — Honore de Balzac 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 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 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 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 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
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 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
White and shining virgin of all human virtues, ark of the covenant between earth and heaven, tender and strong companion partaking of… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
However gross a man may be, the minute he expresses a strong and genuine affection, some inner secretion alters his features, animates… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
We must have books for recreation and entertainment, as well as books for instruction and for business; the former are agreeable, the… — Honore de Balzac 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
“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
