Nature makes only dumb animals. We owe the fools to society. — Honore de Balzac Animals Copy Share Image
Art's greatest efforts are invariably a timid counterfeit of Nature. — Honore de Balzac Art 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 Able Copy Share Image
Ambitious men spend their youth in rendering themselves worthy of patronage; it is their great mistake. While the foolish creatures are laying… — Honore de Balzac Ambition Copy Share Image
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 Clergy Copy Share Image
By and large, women have a faith and a morality peculiar to themselves; they believe in the reality of everything that serves… — Honore de Balzac Believe Copy Share Image
Un mari, comme un gouvernement, ne doit jamais avouer de faute. A husband, like a government, never needs to admit a fault. — Honore de Balzac Faults Copy Share Image
The best painters, as they progress in reputation and towards perfection, are found to dispense more and more with the technique of… — Honore de Balzac Art Copy Share Image
What patient can trust the knowledge of a physician without reputation or furniture, in a period when publicity is all-powerful and when… — Honore de Balzac Concorde Copy Share Image
The greatest joy a petty soul can taste is to dupe a great soul and catch it in a snare. — Honore de Balzac Dupes Copy Share Image
Hatred is the vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all their littleness, and make it the pretext of base tyrannies. — Honore de Balzac Hate Copy Share Image
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 Century Copy Share Image
“The most callous of her guests admired her as young Rome applauded some gladiator who could die smiling.” — Honoré de Balzac Copy Share Image
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 Eye 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
Authentic love always assumes the mystery of modesty, even in its expression, because actions speak louder than words. Unlike a feigned love,… — Honore de Balzac Action Copy Share Image
No woman has ever existed who did not know perfectly well in her heart what to expect from the superiority or inferiority… — Honore de Balzac Heart Copy Share Image
Man can start with aversion and end with love, but if he begins with love and comes round to aversion he will… — Honore de Balzac Aversion Copy Share Image
Many men are deeply moved by the mere semblance of suffering in a woman; they take the look of pain for a… — Honore de Balzac Constancy Copy Share Image
The most virtuous women have something within them, something that is never chaste. — Honore de Balzac Most Copy Share Image
Man's condition is horrible because, no matter what form his happiness may take, it arises from some species of ignorance. — Honore de Balzac Arise Copy Share Image
To forget is the great secret of strong creative natures; to forget is the way nature herself who knows no past and… — Honore de Balzac Creative Copy Share Image
The monotony of provincial life attracts the attention of people to the kitchen. You do not dine as luxuriously in the provinces… — Honore de Balzac Attention Copy Share Image
Woman is a most charming creature, who changes her heart as easily as she does her gloves. — Honore de Balzac Charming 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 Adversity Copy Share Image
