Honoré de Balzac Quotes

Pierrette, like all those who suffer more than they have strength to bear, kept silence.Silence is the only weapon by which such victims can conquer; it baffles the Cossack charges of envy, the savage skirmishings of suspicion; it does at times give victory, crushing and complete, — for what is more complete than silence? it is absolute; it is one of the attributes of infinity.

A man ought not to marry without having studied anatomy, and dissected at least one woman.

With monuments as with men, position means everything.

It is impossible any longer to question the priority of the Asiatic writings over our Holy Scriptures. For those who are able to admit this historical fact in good faith, the world grows astonishingly greater. Was it not on a plateau in Asia that the few men who survived the cataclysm found refuge? .. The history of the origin of man in the Bible is only the genealogy of a swarm which came out of the human hive hanging on the mountain- sides of Tibet between the summits of Himalaya and the Caucasus. . . . A great history rests beneath these names of men and places, behind these fictions which attract us irresistibly without our knowing why. Perhaps we breathe in them the air of our new humanity.

Le grand monde a son argot. Mais cet argot s'appelle le style.

It is certain that during the sixteenth century, and the years that preceded and followed it, poisoning was brought to a perfection unknown to modern chemistry, as history itself will prove. Italy, the cradle of modern science, was, at this period, the inventor and mistress of these secrets, many of which are now lost.

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

La Pratique parlait son langage positif à la Théorie dont la parole est toujours au Futur.

The habits of life form the soul, and the soul forms the physical presence.

I yield to your wishes. It is the privilege of the women whom we love more than they love us to make the men who love them ignore the ordinary rules of common-sense.

Do you know how a man makes his way here? By brilliant genius or by skilful corruption. You must either cut your way through these masses of men like a cannon ball, or steal among them like a plague.

Here comes Mamma Vauquerr, fair as a starrr; and strung up like a bunch of carrots. Aren't we suffocating ourselves a wee bit?' he asked, placing a hand on the top of her corset. 'A bit of a crush in the vestibule, here, Mamma! If we start crying, there'll be an explosion. Never mind, I'll be there to collect the bits — just like an antiquary.'
'Now, there's the language of true French gallantry,' murmured Madame Vauquer in an aside to Madame Couture.

For pain is perhaps but a violent pleasure? Who could determine the point where pleasure becomes pain, where pain is still a pleasure Is not the utmost brightness of the ideal world soothing to us, while the lightest shadows of the physical world annoy?

Un homme sans passion et sans argent reste maître de sa personne ; mais un malheureux qui aime ne s'appartient plus et ne peut pas se tuer. L'amour nous donne une sorte de religion pour nous-mêmes, nous respectons en nous une autre vie ; il devient alors le plus horrible des malheurs.

La flatterie n'émane jamais des grandes âmes, elle est l'apanage des petits esprits qui réussissent à se rapetisser encore pour mieux entrer dans la sphère vitale de la personne autour de laquelle ils gravitent. La flatterie sous-entend un intérêt. (p.239/317)