Quotes

“A grocer is attracted to his business by a magnetic force as great as the repulsion which renders it odious to artists.” Honore de Balzac

“Clouds symbolize the veils that shroud God.” Honore de Balzac

“When law becomes despotic, morals are relaxed, and vice versa.” Honore de Balzac

“Love may be or it may not, but where it is, it ought to reveal itself in its immensity.” Honore de Balzac

“Small natures require despotism to exercise their sinews, as great souls thirst for equality to give play to their heart” Honore de Balzac

“It is the mark of a great man that he puts to flight all ordinary calculations. He is at once sublime and touching, childlike and of the race of giants.” Honore de Balzac

“For passion, be it observed, brings insight with it; it can give a sort of intelligence to simpletons, fools, and idiots, especially during youth.” Honore de Balzac

“Chance, my dear, is the sovereign deity in child-bearing.” Honore de Balzac

“Thought is a key to all treasures; the miser's gains are ours without his cares. Thus I have soared above this world, where my enjoyment have been intellectual joys.” Honore de Balzac

“Old maids, having never bent their temper or their lives to other lives and other tempers, as woman's destiny requires, have for the most part a mania for making everything about them bend to them.” Honore de Balzac

“The life of a man who deliberately runs through his fortune often becomes a business speculation; his friends, his pleasures, patrons, and acquaintances are his capital.” Honore de Balzac

“The smallest flower is a thought, a life answering to some feature of the Great Whole, of whom they have a persistent intuition.” Honore de Balzac

“Many men are deeply moved by the mere semblance of suffering in a woman; they take the look of pain for a sign of constancy or of love.” Honore de Balzac

“Love has its own instinct, finding the way to the heart, as the feeblest insect finds the way to its flower, with a will which nothing can dismay nor turn aside.” Honore de Balzac

“The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute.” Honore de Balzac

“When Religion and Royalty are swept away, the people will attack the great, and after the great, they will fall upon the rich.” Honore de Balzac

“Children, dear and loving children, can alone console a woman for the loss of her beauty.” Honore de Balzac

“Our most bitter enemies are our own kith and kin. Kings have no brothers, no sons, no mother!” Honore de Balzac

“It would be curious to know what leads a man to become a stationer rather than a baker, when he is no longer compelled, as among the Egyptians, to succeed to his father's craft.” Honore de Balzac

“A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.” Moliere

“We die only once, and for such a long time.” Moliere

“The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.” Moliere

“It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.” Moliere

“One should eat to live, not live to eat.” Moliere

“Love is often the fruit of marriage.” Moliere

“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.” Moliere

“It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I'm right.” Moliere

“Don't appear so scholarly, pray. Humanize your talk, and speak to be understood.” Moliere

“He who follows his lessons tastes a profound peace, and looks upon everybody as a bunch of manure.” Moliere

“If you suppress grief too much, it can well redouble.” Moliere