May Quotes by Honoré de Balzac

A man may and ought to pride himself more on his will than on his talent.

— Honore de Balzac

You may imitate, but never counterfeit.

— Honore de Balzac

Equality may be a right, but no power on earth can convert it into fact.

— Honore de Balzac

What a thing of fantasy a woman may become after dusk.

— Honore de Balzac

Equality may be the law, but no human power can install it.

— Honore de Balzac

Love may be or it may not, but where it is, it ought to reveal itself in its immensity.

— Honore de Balzac

A girl fresh from a boarding school may perhaps be a virgin but no! she is never chaste.

— Honore de Balzac

Only when one has learned to acknowledge that wiser minds have made better words to come out of our mouths may we…

— Honore de Balzac

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

Man's condition is horrible because, no matter what form his happiness may take, it arises from some species of ignorance.

— Honore de Balzac

A man wastes his time going to hear some of our eloquent modern preachers; they may change his opinions, but never his…

— Honore de Balzac

Love may be the fairest gem which Society has filched from Nature; but what is motherhood save Nature in her most gladsome…

— Honore de Balzac

The key to all sciences is unquestionably the question mark. To the word How? we owe most of our greatest discoveries. Wisdom…

— Honore de Balzac

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

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

For businessmen, the world is a bale of banknotes in circulation; for most young men, it is a woman; for some women,…

— Honore de Balzac

It is not hope but despair that gives us the measure of our ambitions. We may yield secretly to beautiful poems of…

— Honore de Balzac

Love, according to our contemporary poets, is a privilege which two beings confer upon one another, whereby they may mutually cause one…

— Honore de Balzac

Genius is answerable only to itself; it is the sole judge of the means, since it alone knows the end; thus genius…

— Honore de Balzac

In Paris, when certain people see you ready to set your foot in the stirrup, some pull your coat-tails, others loosen the…

— Honore de Balzac

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

A penniless man who has no ties to bind him is master of himself at any rate, but a luckless wretch who…

— Honore de Balzac