Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness. — Honore de Balzac Courtesy Copy Share Image
Few men are raised in our estimation by being too closely examined. — Honore de Balzac Closely Copy Share Image
For the journalist, anything probable is gospel truth. — Honore de Balzac Christianity Copy Share Image
Let us leave the cure of public evils to those quacks, the statesmen. — Honore de Balzac Cures Copy Share Image
A rent in your clothes is a mishap, a stain on them is a vice. — Honore de Balzac Clothes 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
Too great a display of delicacy can and does sometimes infringe upon de-cency. — Honore de Balzac Decency Copy Share Image
People who climb from one rung of society to another can never do anything simply. — Honore de Balzac Climb Copy Share Image
No woman dares to refuse love without a motive, for nothing is more natural than to yield to love. — Honore de Balzac Dare Copy Share Image
Our energies are often stimulated by the necessity of supporting a being weaker than ourselves. — Honore de Balzac Charity Copy Share Image
For passion, be it observed, brings insight with it; it can give a sort of intelligence to simpletons, fools, and idiots, especially… — Honore de Balzac Insight Copy Share Image
“I shall still live on as a memory on your palette; that shall be life for me afterward.” — Honoré de Balzac Afterlife Copy Share Image
Some day you will find out that there is far more happiness in another's happiness than in your own. — Honore de Balzac Happiness Copy Share Image
It is the mark of a great man that he puts to flight all ordinary calculations. He is at once sublime and… — Honore de Balzac Calculations Copy Share Image
Women are tenacious, and all of them should be tenacious of respect; without esteem they cannot exist; esteem is the first demand… — Honore de Balzac Demand Copy Share Image
Intuition, like the rays of the sun, acts only in an inflexibly straight line; it can guess right only on condition of… — Honore de Balzac Chance Copy Share Image
“Soon this mass of ideas became harmonized, took life, seemed, as it were, to become a living individual and moved in the… — Honoré de Balzac Life Copy Share Image
The fact is that love is of two kinds, one which commands, and one which obeys. The two are quite distinct, and… — Honore de Balzac Love Copy Share Image
Marriage is a fight to the death. Before contracting it, the two parties concerned implore the benediction of Heaven because to promise… — Honore de Balzac Benediction Copy Share Image
Marriage is a fierce battle before which the two partners ask heaven for its blessing, because loving each other is the most… — Honore de Balzac Asks Copy Share Image
If those who are the enemies of innocent amusements had the direction of the world, they would take away the spring, and… — Honore de Balzac Enemies Copy Share Image
We are never either so wretched or so happy as we say we are. — Honore de Balzac Funny Copy Share Image
The more illegal a profit, the more tenaciously a man clings to it. — Honore de Balzac Illegal Copy Share Image
In diving to the bottom of pleasure we bring up more gravel than pearls. — Honore de Balzac Bottom Copy Share Image
There are some women whose pregnancy would make some sly bachelor smile. — Honore de Balzac Pregnancy Copy Share Image
The habits of life form the soul, and the soul forms the countenance. — Honore de Balzac Countenance Copy Share Image
Love based upon money and vanity forms the most stubborn of passions. — Honore de Balzac Form Copy Share Image
“There's nothing so fearsome as the revolt of a sheep," said de Marsay.” — Honoré de Balzac Fear Copy Share Image
There is neither vice nor virtue, there are only circumstances. — Honore de Balzac Art Copy Share Image
The most virtuous women have within them something that is never chaste. — Honore de Balzac Chaste Copy Share Image
