Quotes

“Our true passions are selfish.” Stendhal

“Never had he found himself so close to those terrible weapons of feminine artillery.” Stendhal

“The Russians imitate French ways, but always at a distance of fifty years.” Stendhal

“Politics in a literary work, is like a gun shot in the middle of a concert, something vulgar, and however, something which is impossible to ignore.” Stendhal

“People who have been made to suffer by certain things cannot be reminded of them without a horror which paralyses every other pleasure, even that to be found in reading a story.” Stendhal

“A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea.” Honore de Balzac

“A mother who is really a mother is never free.” Honore de Balzac

“A good husband is never the first to go to sleep at night or the last to awake in the morning.” Honore de Balzac

“When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues.” Honore de Balzac

“A mother's happiness is like a beacon, lighting up the future but reflected also on the past in the guise of fond memories.” Honore de Balzac

“Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.” Honore de Balzac

“Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact” Honore de Balzac

“Love is the poetry of the senses.” Honore de Balzac

“The fact is that love is of two kinds, one which commands, and one which obeys. The two are quite distinct, and the passion to which the one gives rise is not the passion of the other.” Honore de Balzac

“Love is a game in which one always cheats.” Honore de Balzac

“Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness.” Honore de Balzac

“A lover always thinks of his mistress first and himself second; with a husband it runs the other way.” Honore de Balzac

“The motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one.” Honore de Balzac

“The more one judges, the less one loves.” Honore de Balzac

“A man is a poor creature compared to a woman.” Honore de Balzac

“Women are tenacious, and all of them should be tenacious of respect; without esteem they cannot exist; esteem is the first demand that they make of love.” Honore de Balzac

“A mother's life, you see, is one long succession of dramas, now soft and tender, now terrible. Not an hour but has its joys and fears.” Honore de Balzac

“The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.” Honore de Balzac

“It is as absurd to say that a man can't love one woman all the time as it is to say that a violinist needs several violins to play the same piece of music.” Honore de Balzac

“A young bride is like a plucked flower; but a guilty wife is like a flower that had been walked over.” Honore de Balzac

“The most virtuous women have something within them, something that is never chaste.” Honore de Balzac

“True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.” Honore de Balzac

“It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action.” Honore de Balzac

“No man should marry until he has studied anatomy and dissected at least one woman.” Honore de Balzac

“If we could but paint with the hand what we see with the eye.” Honore de Balzac