Quotes from Honore de Balzac

All men can bear a familiar, definite misfortune better than the cruel alternations of a fate which, from one moment to another, brings excessive joy or sorrow.

Are not poets men who fulfill their hopes prematurely?

Man's condition is horrible because, no matter what form his happiness may take, it arises from some species of ignorance.

Conscience is a cudgel which all men pick up in order to thwack their neighbors instead of applying it to their own shoulders.

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

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

A knowledge of mankind and of things that surround us gives us that second education which proves far move valuable than our first because it alone turns out a truly accomplished man.

Nothing is unimportant to a man plunged in despair. He is as credulous as a criminal sentenced to death who listens to a lunatic raving to him about how he can escape through the keyhole.

Let nothing dupe you! Such is the horrible maxim that acts as a solvent upon every noble feeling man experiences.

When attempted self-destruction does not cure a man of life, it cures him of voluntary death.

You're a fine fastidious young man, as proud as a lion, as gentle as a girl. You'd make a good catch for the devil.

We have long struggles with ourself, of which the outcome is one of our actions; they are, as it were, the inner side of human nature. This inner side is God's; the outer side belongs to men.

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

Those who spend too fast never grow rich.

True lovers know how trifling a thing is money yet how difficult to blend with love!

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.

In a husband, there is only a man; in a married woman, there is a man, a father, a mother and a woman.

Noble passions are like vices: the more they are satisfied, the greater they grow, Mothers and gamblers are insatiable.

Our most bitter enemies are our own kith and kin. Kings have no brothers, no sons, no mother!

It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action.

Art's greatest efforts are invariably a timid counterfeit of Nature.

For the person who loves God, worship is the daily bread of patience.

Political liberty, the peace of a nation, and science itself are gifts for which Fate demands a heavy tax in blood!

There is neither vice nor virtue, there are only circumstances.