Quotes from Honore de Balzac

Woman is stronger by virtue of her feelings than man by virtue of his power.

Women are as they are; they necessarily have the defects of their virtues.

My further advice on your relations to women is based upon that other motto of chivalry, "Serve all, love one."

In smart society men are jealous of one another after the fashion of women.

When a woman starts talking about her duty, her regard for appearances, and her respect for religion, she raises so many bulwarks which she delights to see captured by storm.

Conscience is our unerring judge until we finally stifle it.

An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.

All happiness depends on courage and work. I have had many periods of wretchedness, but with energy and above all with illusions, I pulled through them all.

Love and work have the virtues of making a man pretty indifferent to anything else.

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

We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are.

"Great love affairs start with Champagne…"

Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine.

Marriage must fight constantly against a monster which devours everything: routine.

The man whom fate employs to awaken love in the heart of a young girl is often unaware of his work and therefore leaves it uncompleted.

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

Imagination helps the realism of every detail, and only sees the beauties of the work.

It is very difficult to pass from pleasure to work. Accordingly more poems have been swallowed up by sorrow than ever happiness caused to blaze forth in unparalleled radiance.

Mud, raised by hurricanes, wells up in the noblest and purest of hearts.

What is art? Nature concentrated.

He has great tranquility of heart who cares neither for the praises nor the fault-finding of men.

We cannot confront solitude without moral resources.

In the desert there is all—and yet nothing…. God is there and man is not.