Honore De Balzac Quotes
Men are perfectly willing to abandon a woman but they refuse to be abandoned by her.
The sanctity of womanhood is incompatible with social liberty and social claims; and for a woman emancipation means corruption.
At fifteen, beauty and talent do not exist; there can only be promise of the coming woman.
No man has ever yet discovered the way to give friendly advice to any woman, not even to his own wife.
Virtually all men of action incline to Fatality just as most thinkers incline to Providence.
Suicide, moreover, was at the time in vogue in Paris: what more suitable key to the mystery of life for a skeptical society?
Man judges of nature in relation to itself; the angelic spirit judges of it in relation to heaven. In short, to the spirits everything speaks.
If those who are the enemies of innocent amusements had the direction of the world, they would take away the spring, and youth, the former from the year, the latter from human life.
Political liberty, the peace of a nation, and science itself are gifts for which Fate demands a heavy tax in blood!
Discouragement is of all ages: In youth it is a presentiment, in old age a remembrance.
With a woman, always make good use of a secret. She will be proportionally grateful to you, like a scoundrel who grants his respect to an honest man he has been unable to swindle.
The questioning spirit is the rebellious spirit. A rebellion is always either a cloak to hide a prince, or the swaddling wrapper of a new rule.
To lese-majeste and contempt of court, we must add the crime of lese-million, that fearful indignity we visit on the rich when we expose the impotence of gold.
Innocence alone dares commit certain acts of audacity. Virtue, when tutored, is as calculating as vice.
Whereas scoundrels become reconciled after knifing one another, lovers break up irrevocably over a mere glance or word.
Handsome widows, after a twelve-month, enjoy a latitude and longitude without limit.
There are as many mediocrities exalted through pity as masters decried through envy.
Genuine sorrows are very tranquil in appearance in the deep bed they have dug for themselves. But, seeming to slumber, they corrode the soul like that frightful acid which penetrates crystal.
Love or hatred must constantly increase between two persons who are always together; every moment fresh reasons are found for loving or hating better.
The errors of women spring, almost always, from their faith in the good, or their confidence in the true
If certain women walk straight into adultery, there are many others who cling to numerous hopes, and commit sin only after wandering through a maze of sorrows.
Your modest savant smiles as he says to his admirers: What have I done? Nothing. Man does not invent a force, he directs it.
A woman's sentimental monkeyshines will always deceive her lover, who invariably waxes ecstatic where her husband necessarily shrugs his shoulders.
Woman has this in common with angels, that suffering beings belong especially to her.
Love passes quickly, and passes like a street Arab, anxious to mark his way with mischief.
A careful observation of Nature will disclose pleasantries of superb irony. She has for instance placed toads close to flowers.
When will conventional good manners become attractive? When will ladies of fashion exhibit their shoulders a little less and their affability and wit a little more?
Emulation admires and strives to imitate great actions; envy is only moved to malice.
Misfortune makes of certain souls a vast desert through which rings the voice of God.
The best painters, as they progress in reputation and towards perfection, are found to dispense more and more with the technique of the art, for simpler methods. Simplicity never fails to charm.
Love and work have the virtues of making a man pretty indifferent to anything else.
Men are such dupes by choice, that he who would impose upon others never need be at a loss to find ready victims.
Yes, I can understand that a man might go to a gambling table when he sees that all that lies between him and death is his last crown.