Honoré de Balzac

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.

— Honore de Balzac

Wisdom is that apprehension of heavenly things to which the spirit rises through love.

— Honore de Balzac

To feel, to love, to suffer, to devote herself, will always be the text of the life of woman.

— Honore de Balzac

Gratitude is a fool's word; we find it in the dictionary, but it is not in the heart of man.

— Honore de Balzac

My further advice on your relations to women is based upon that other motto of chivalry, "Serve all, love one.

— Honore de Balzac

A woman's sentimental monkeyshines will always deceive her lover, who invariably waxes ecstatic where her husband necessarily shrugs his shoulders.

— Honore de Balzac

For a sick man the world begins at his pillow and ends at the foot of his bed.

— Honore de Balzac

Does anyone know where these gondolas of Paris come from? [Fr., Ne sait on pas ou viennent ces gondoles Parisiennes?]

— Honore de Balzac

When tempted to be unfaithful, the intellectual woman will try to inspire her husband with indifference, the sentimental woman with hatred, and…

— Honore de Balzac

Vulgar souls look hastily and superficially at the sea and accuse it of monotony; other more privileged beings could spend a lifetime…

— Honore de Balzac

Constancy will always be the genius of love, the indication of that strength which constitutes the poet. A man should possess all…

— Honore de Balzac

But reason always cuts a poor figure beside sentiment; the one being essentially restricted, like everything that is positive, while the other…

— Honore de Balzac

Conviction brings a silent, indefinable beauty into faces made of the commonest human clay; the devout worshiper at any shrine reflects something…

— Honore de Balzac

A woman, even a prude, is not long at a loss, however dire her plight. She would seen always to have in…

— Honore de Balzac

Events are never absolute, their outcome depends entirely upon the individual. Misfortune is a stepping stone for a genius, a piscina for…

— Honore de Balzac

“However," he continued, "this canvas is preferable to the paintings of that varlet Rubens, with his mountains of Flemish flesh sprinkled with…

— Honoré de Balzac

Paris, like every pretty woman, is subject to inexplicable whims of beauty and ugliness.

— Honore de Balzac

France is a country that loves to change their government if it is always the same.

— Honore de Balzac

During the great storms of our lives we imitate those captains who jettison their weightiest cargo.

— Honore de Balzac

In love, what a woman mistakes for disgust is actually clearsightedness. If she does not admire a man, she scorns him.

— Honore de Balzac

“Happiness is the inner poetry of women, just as fine clothes are the mask of beauty”

— Honoré de Balzac

In France we can cauterize wounds but we do not yet know any remedy for the injuries inflicted by a bon mot.

— Honore de Balzac

Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.

— Honore de Balzac

Squeeze marriage as much as you like, you will never extract anything from it but fun for bachelors and boredom for husbands.

— Honore de Balzac

When attempted self-destruction does not cure a man of life, it cures him of voluntary death.

— Honore de Balzac

“What place indeed is there in the shallow petty frivolous thing called society for noble thoughts and feelings?”

— Honoré de Balzac

Discouragement is of all ages: In youth it is a presentiment, in old age a remembrance.

— Honore de Balzac

“for a woman knows the face of the man she loves like a sailor knows the open sea”

— Honore De Balzac

Happiness lends poetic charms to woman, and dress adorns her like a delicate tinge of rouge.

— Honore de Balzac

He has great tranquility of heart who cares neither for the praises nor the fault-finding of men.

— Honore de Balzac

Your women of fashion ceases to be a woman. She is neither mother, nor wife, nor lover. She is, medically speaking, sex…

— Honore de Balzac

Once she has committed sin, there is nothing left for the Protestant woman, whereas the Catholic Church, hope of forgiveness makes a…

— Honore de Balzac

One can imagine the look the two lovers exchanged; it was like a flame, for virtuous lovers have not a shred of…

— Honore de Balzac

By dint of making sacrifices, a man grows interested in the person who exacts them. Great ladies, like courtesans, know this truth…

— Honore de Balzac

Stupidity assumes two forms, it speaks or is silent. Mute stupidity is bearable.

— Honore de Balzac

Our heart is a treasury; if you pour out all its wealth at once, you are bankrupt.

— Honore de Balzac

The innocence of virgins is like milk which turns when exposed to a clap of thunder, to a tart smell, to a…

— Honore de Balzac

We do not wish success yet we obtain it. Always we find what we are not looking for. These words are too…

— Honore de Balzac

The majority of husbands remind me of an orangutan trying to play the violin.

— Honore de Balzac

The motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one.

— Honore de Balzac