Honore de Balzac Quotes - Page 26

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• A careful observation of Nature will disclose pleasantries of superb irony. She has for instance placed toads close to flowers.

  Honore de Balzac

  Nature, Flower, Toads

  7 Copy quote

• A woman in the depths of despair proves so persuasive that she wrenches the forgiveness lurking deep in the heart of her lover. This is all the more true when that woman is young, pretty, and so decollete as to emerge from the neck of her gown in the costume of Eve.

  Honore de Balzac

  Heart, Despair, Costumes

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• What moralist can deny that well-bred and vicious people are much more agreeable than their virtuous counterparts? Having crimes to atone for, they provisionally solicit indulgence by showing leniency toward the defects of their judges. Thus they pass for excellent folk.

  Honore de Balzac

  People, Judging, Crime

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• Perhaps it is only human nature to inflict suffering on anything that will endure suffering, whether by reason of its genuine humility, or indifference, or sheer helplessness.

  Honore de Balzac

  Humility, Anti Bullying, Suffering

  Honore de Balzac, Pierre F. Limouzy (1999). “CliffsNotes on Balzac's Pere Goriot”, p.7, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

• There are houses in certain provincial towns whose aspect inspires melancholy, akin to that called forth by sombre cloisters, dreary moorlands, or the desolation of ruins. Within these houses there is, perhaps, the silence of the cloister, the barrenness of moors, the skeleton of ruins; life and movement are so stagnant there that a stranger might think them uninhabited, were it not that he encounters suddenly the pale, cold glance of a motionless person, whose half-monastic face peers beyond the window-casing at the sound of an unaccustomed step.

  Honore de Balzac

  Book, Thinking, Skeletons

  Honore de Balzac (2009). “Eugenie Grandet”, p.5, The Floating Press

  4 Copy quote

• Your women of fashion ceases to be a woman. She is neither mother, nor wife, nor lover. She is, medically speaking, sex on the brain.

  Honore de Balzac

  Mother, Fashion, Sex

  4 Copy quote

• Small natures require despotism to exercise their sinews, as great souls thirst for equality to give play to their heart.

  Honore de Balzac

  Heart, Exercise, Equality

  12 Copy quote

• The election of a deputy to the Legislature offers a noble and majestic spectacle comparable only to the delivery of a child. It involves the same efforts, the same impurities, the same laceration, and the same triumph.

  Honore de Balzac

  Children, Effort, Majestic

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• A lui la foi, a' elle le doute, a' elle le fardeau le plus lourd: la femme ne souffre-t-elle pas toujours pour deux? For him, faith; for her, doubt and for her theheavier load: does not the woman always suffer for both?

  Honore de Balzac

  Doubt, Suffering, Doe

  1831 La Recherche de l'absolu.

  4 Copy quote

• Let passion reach a catastrophe and it submits us to an intoxicating force far more powerful than the niggardly irritation of wine or of opium. The lucidity our ideas then achieve, and the delicacy of our overly exalted sensations, produce the strangest and most unexpected effects.

  Honore de Balzac

  Powerful, Passion, Wine

  4 Copy quote

• To those who have exhausted politics, nothing remains but abstract thought.

  Honore de Balzac

  Exhausted, Abstract, Remains

  8 Copy quote

• A vocation is born to us all; happily most of us meet promptly our twin,--occupation.

  Honore de Balzac

  Occupation, Twins, Born

  4 Copy quote

• The Parisan, sauntering the streets idly, is as often a man in despair as a lounger.

  Honore de Balzac

  Men, Despair, Sauntering

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• Le mariage doit incessamment combattre un monstre qui de v ore tout: l'habitude. Marriage should always combat the monster that devours everything: habit.

  Honore de Balzac

  Monsters, Habit, Should

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• Beaucoup d'hommes ont un orgueil qui les pousse a' cacher leurs combats et a' ne se montrer que victorieux. Many men have pride that causes them to hide their combats and to only show themselves victorious.

  Honore de Balzac

  Pride, Men, Causes

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• The happier a man, the more apt he is to tremble. In hearts exclusively tender, anxiety and jealousy are in exact proportion to happiness.

  Honore de Balzac

  Happiness, Heart, Men

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• The questioning spirit is the rebellious spirit. A rebellion is always either a cloak to hide a prince, or the swaddling wrapper of a new rule.

  Honore de Balzac

  Spirit, Rebellious, Rebellion

  "'Catherine de Medici expliquée' ('About Catherine of Medici')". Book by Honoré de Balzac, 1843.

  7 Copy quote

• Journalism is a giant catapult set in motion by pigmy hatreds.

  Honore de Balzac

  Hatred, Giants, Journalism

  10 Copy quote

• For businessmen, the world is a bale of banknotes in circulation; for most young men, it is a woman; for some women, it is a man; and for others it may be a salon, a coterie, a part of town or a whole city.

  Honore de Balzac

  Men, Cities, World

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• Marriage is a fight to the death, before which the wedded couple ask a blessing from heaven, because it is the rashest of all undertakings to swear eternal love; the fight at once commences and victory, that is to say liberty, remains in the hands of the cleverer of the two.

  Honore de Balzac

  Couple, Fighting, Blessing

  Honore de Balzac (1925). “The Physiology of Marriage”, p.29, Library of Alexandria

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• All poetry like every work of art proceeds from a swift vision of things.

  Honore de Balzac

  Art, Poetry, Vision

  Honore De Balzac (2011). “Louis Lambert”, p.36, The Floating Press

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• For certain people, misfortune is a beacon that lights up the dark and baser sides of social life.

  Honore de Balzac

  Dark, Light, People

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• Le coeur d'une me' re est un ab|"me au fond duquel se trouve toujours un pardon. A mother'sheart isanabyss atthebottomof whichthere is always forgiveness.

  Honore de Balzac

  Mother, Pardon

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• To kill a relative of whom you are tired is something. But to inherit his property afterwards, that is genuine pleasure.

  Honore de Balzac

  Funny, Money, Tired

  Honore de Balzac (2014). “Poor Relations: Cousin Betty and Cousin Pons”, p.772, The Floating Press

  11 Copy quote

• Un mari, comme un gouvernement, ne doit jamais avouer de faute. A husband, like a government, never needs to admit a fault.

  Honore de Balzac

  Husband, Government, Needs

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