Honoré de Balzac Quotes

Борьба имеет свою прелесть. Бороться - значит жить, пусть борьба приносит горе, пусть она ранит, - все лучше, чем беспросветный мрак отвращения, яд презрительной замкнутости, холод тех, кто отрекся от борьбы, чем смерть сердца, которая зовется равнодушием.

A quinze ans, ni la beauté ni le talent n'existent : une femme est tout promesse.

Man cannot spend all his time doing evil, and even in the company of pirates there must be some sweet moments on their sinister ship when you feel as if you were aboard a pleasure yacht.

Whoso says "Investigate" says "Revolt." All revolt is either the cloak that hides a prince, or the swaddling-clothes of a new mastery.

I belong to the opposition party, which is called life.

A husband who submits to his wife’s yoke is justly held an object of ridicule. A woman’s influence ought to be entirely concealed.

The most real of all splendors are not in outward things, they are within us.

The viscountess had raised the forefinger of her right hand and made a pretty gesture toward a stool at her feet. There was such intense tyrannical passion in the gesture that the marquis relinquished the doorknob and came back.

Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.

What moralists describe as the mysteries of the human heart are solely the deceiving thoughts, the spontaneous impulses of self-regard. The sudden changes in character, about which so much has been said, are instinctive calculations for the furtherance of our own pleasures. Seeing himself now in his fine clothes, his new gloves and shoes, Eugène de Rastignac forgot his noble resolve. Youth, when it swerves toward wrong, dares not look in the mirror of conscience; maturity has already seen itself there. That is the whole difference between the two phases of life.

for she was invaded by a kind of love which every girl has gone through — the love of the unknown, love in its vaguest form,

C'était une de ces soirées délicieuses à l'âme, un de ces moments qui ne s'oublient jamais, une de ces heures passées dans la paix et le désir, et dont, plus tard, le charme est toujours un sujet de regret, même quand nous nous trouvons plus heureux.

Ah ! combien de choses un enfant apprend à sa mère. Il y a tant de promesses faites entre nous et la vertu dans cette protection incessante due à un être faible, que la femme n’est dans sa véritable sphère que quand elle est mère ; elle déploie alors seulement ses forces, elle pratique les devoirs de sa vie, elle en a tous les bonheurs et tous les plaisirs.

Between persons who are perpetually in each other's company dislike or love increases daily; every moment brings reasons to love or hate each other more and more.

Les jeunes filles se créent souvent de nobles, de ravissantes images, des figures tout idéales, et se forgent des idées chimériques sur les hommes, sur les sentiments, sur le monde ; puis elles attribuent innocemment à un caractère les perfections qu'elles ont rêvées, et s'y confient.