Honoré de Balzac Quotes

Ah! What pleasure it must be to a woman to suffer for the one she loves!

J’ai été enterré sous les morts ; mais, maintenant, je suis enterré sous des vivants, sous des actes, sous des faits, sous la société tout entière, qui veut me faire rentrer sous terre!

Nature makes only dumb animals. We owe the fools to society.

All human power is a compound of time and patience.

A man like you is a god, not just a machine covered with skin, but a theater where fine feelings sprout and grow-and feelings are all that matters, as far as I'm concerned. Is a feeling anything but an entire world poured into a thought?

Les villes se relèvent aussi difficilement que les maisons de commerce de leur ruine.

Sa haine ne fut pas en raison de son amour, mais de ses espérances trompées.

Clouds signify the veil of the Most High.

Glory is the sunshine of the dead

Women are always true, even in the midst of their greatest falsities, because they are always influenced by some natural feeling.

Hortense was a wife; Valerie a mistress.
Many men desire to have these two editions of the same work, although it is proof of deep inferiority in a man if he cannot make his wife his mistress. Seeking variety is a sign of impotence.

I haven't any objection to your thoroughly despising me, right now, because I'm convinced you'll come to love me. You'll find I have some tremendous abysses, some huge, focused emotions that fools think of as vices, but you'll never find me lazy, and you'll never find me ungrateful. In a word, I'm neither a pawn nor a bishop, my young friend, but a castle.

Life is simply what out feelings do to us.

If you have any mind to keep my respect, I recommend you not to add imbecility to these qualities by imagining that such a girl as I am will be content with your asthmatic love, and not look for youth and good looks and pleasure by way of a variety —

La bonté n'est pas sans écueils : on l'attribue au caractère, on veut rarement y reconnaître les efforts secrets d'une belle âme, tandis qu'on récompense les gens méchants du mal qu'ils ne font pas.