Quotes

“There is no such thing as a great talent without great will power.” Honore de Balzac

“Between the daylight gambler and the player at night there is the same difference that lies between a careless husband and the lover swooning under his lady's window.” Honore de Balzac

“The majority of husbands remind me of an orangutan trying to play the violin.” Honore de Balzac

“Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.” Honore de Balzac

“Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane.” Honore de Balzac

“Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster that devours everything: familiarity.” Honore de Balzac

“First love is a kind of vaccination which saves a man from catching the complaint the second time.” Honore de Balzac

“Nobody loves a woman because she is handsome or ugly, stupid or intelligent. We love because we love.” Honore de Balzac

“I do not regard a broker as a member of the human race.” Honore de Balzac

“Nothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that he is superior to the other.” Honore de Balzac

“Passion is universal humanity. Without it religion, history, romance and art would be useless.” Honore de Balzac

“In diving to the bottom of pleasure we bring up more gravel than pearls.” Honore de Balzac

“Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.” Honore de Balzac

“To kill a relative of whom you are tired is something. But to inherit his property afterwards, that is genuine pleasure.” Honore de Balzac

“There are some women whose pregnancy would make some sly bachelor smile.” Honore de Balzac

“There is something great and terrible about suicide.” Honore de Balzac

“Manners are the hypocrisy of a nation.” Honore de Balzac

“At fifteen, beauty and talent do not exist; there can only be promise of the coming woman.” Honore de Balzac

“A flow of words is a sure sign of duplicity.” Honore de Balzac

“The man whose action habitually bears the stamp of his mind is a genius, but the greatest genius is not always equal to himself, or he would cease to be human.” Honore de Balzac

“Men die in despair, while spirits die in ecstasy.” Honore de Balzac

“Unintelligent persons are like weeds that thrive in good ground; they love to be amused in proportion to the degree in which they weary themselves.” Honore de Balzac

“But reason always cuts a poor figure beside sentiment; the one being essentially restricted, like everything that is positive, while the other is infinite.” Honore de Balzac

“Love or hatred must constantly increase between two persons who are always together; every moment fresh reasons are found for loving or hating better.” Honore de Balzac

“Excess of joy is harder to bear than any amount of sorrow.” Honore de Balzac

“The duration of passion is proportionate with the original resistance of the woman.” Honore de Balzac

“It is easier to be a lover than a husband for the simple reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day than to say pretty things from time to time.” Honore de Balzac

“An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.” Honore de Balzac

“Modesty is the conscience of the body.” Honore de Balzac

“All humanity is passion; without passion, religion, history, novels, art would be ineffectual.” Honore de Balzac