If we could but paint with the hand what we see with the eye. - Honoré de Balzac

Madame de Nucingen was already there, dressed with the deliberate aim of appealing to all eyes, knowing that thereby she would seem even more attractive to Eugène.

If we study Nature attentively in its great evolutions as in its minutest works, we cannot fail to recognize the possibility of enchantment — giving to that word its exact significance. Man does not create forces; he employs the only force that exists and which includes all others, namely Motion, the breath incomprehensible of the sovereign Maker of the universe.

La tyrannie produit deux effets contraires dont les symboles existent dans deux grandes figures de l'esclavage antique : Epictète et Spartacus, la haine et ses sentiments mauvais, la résignation et ses tendresses chrétiennes.