Honoré de Balzac Quotes

There is no such thing as a great talent without great willpower.

Some day you will find out that there is far more happiness in another's happiness than in your own.

Il y a des femmes dont la grossesse fait sourire quelque célibataire sournois.

Good befalls us while we sleep, sometimes.

La solitude est une belle chose; mais il faut quelqu'un pour vous dire que la solitude est une belle chose.

Nature knows nothing but solid bodies; your science deals only with combinations of surfaces. And so nature constantly gives the lie to all your laws; can you name one to which no fact makes an exception?

Young man,' Porbus said, seeing Poussin stare open-mouthed at a picture, 'Don't look at the canvas too long, it will drive you to despair.

Manners are the hypocrisy of nations.

I do not share the belief in indefinite progress for society as a whole; I believe in man’s improvement in himself.

Quand le despotisme est dans les lois, la liberté se trouve dans les mœurs, et vice versa.

Je te le déclare, en mon âme et conscience, la conquête du pouvoir ou d'une grande renommée littéraire me paraissait un triomphe moins difficile à obtenir qu'un succès auprès d'une femme de haut rang, jeune, spirituelle et gracieuse.

Society bristles with enigmas which look hard to solve. It is a perfect maze of intrigue.

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

It is always assumed by the empty-headed, who chatter about themselves for want of something better, that people who do not discuss their affairs openly must have something to hide.

Virtue, my pet, is an abstract idea, varying in its manifestations with the surroundings. Virtue in Provence, in Constantinople, in London, and in Paris bears very different fruit, but is none the less virtue.