Quotes from Honore de Balzac

Femeile al caror suflet si ale caror intentii sunt pure, se folosesc de virtuti pentru a-i domina pe barbatii pe care-i iubesc; dar femeile care nu le vor binele ii guverneaza servindu-se de cusururile lor.

Es mucho más fácil quedar bien como amante que como marido; porque es mucho mas fácil ser oportuno e ingenioso de vez en cuando que todos los días

The viscountess had raised the forefinger of her right hand and made a pretty gesture toward a stool at her feet. There was such intense tyrannical passion in the gesture that the marquis relinquished the doorknob and came back.

Le sentiment que l'homme supporte le plus difficilement est la pitié, surtout quand il la mérite. La haine est un tonique, elle fait vivre, elle inspire la vengeance; mais la pitié tue, elle affaiblit encore notre faiblesse.

We women never care about anything that no one else will take.

Events which seem to us dramatic are nothing more than subjects which our souls convert into tragedy or comedy according to the bent of our characters.

there is something still more appalling than the ingratitude of daughters who have cast off their old father and wish that he were dead, and that is a rivalry between two sisters.

There will be nothing you may not aspire to; you will go everywhere, and you will find out what the world is — an assemblage of fools and knaves.

The differences between a soldier, an artisan, a man of business, a lawyer, an idler, a student, a statesman, a merchant, a sailor, a poet, a beggar, a priest, are as great, though not so easy to define, as those between the wolf, the lion, the ass, the crow, the shark, the seal, the sheep, etc. Thus social species have always existed, and will always exist, just as there are zoological species.

El error de los hombres superiores es gastar los años de su juventud en hacerse dignos de la estimación de los demás.

In diving to the bottom of pleasure we bring up more gravel than pearls

Parent may hinder their children's marriage; but children cannot interfere with the insane acts of their parents in their second childhood.

Le grand monde a son argot. Mais cet argot s'appelle le style.

Poverty has in its favour an exquisite sleep filled with beautiful dreams.

This costume, utterly uncouth, seemed to have been invented as a final test of grace, and to show that there was nothing too ridiculous for fashion to consecrate.

J'ai été enterré sous les morts ; mais, maintenant, je suis enterré sous des vivants, sous des actes, sous des faits, sous la société tout entière, qui veut me faire rentrer sous terre!

A ignorância é a mãe de todos os crimes, porque um crime é, antes de mais, uma falta de raciocínio.

All is true, - so true, that every one can discern the elements of the tragedy in his own house, perhaps in his own heart.

The Oratorian boarding school in Vendôme, which Balzac was sent to at a young age. It was a gruelling and miserable place to live, with severe monastic rules.

You have wavered uncertainly between two systems, between drawing and coloring, between the painstaking phlegm, the stiff precision, of the old German masters, and the dazzling ardor, the happy fertility, of the Italian painters.

am fully convinced that it is impossible for a woman, even if she were born close to a throne, to acquire before the age of five-and-twenty the encyclopaedic knowledge of trifles, the practice of manoeuvring, the important small things, the musical tones and harmony of coloring, the angelic bedevilments and innocent cunning, the speech and the silence, the seriousness and the banter, the wit and the obtuseness, the diplomacy and the ignorance which make up the perfect lady.

A husband and wife found themselves in love with each other for the first time after twenty-seven years of marriage.

Croyez-le, le véritable amour est éternel, infini, toujours semblable à lui-même ; il est égal et pur, sans démonstrations violentes ; il se voit en cheveux blancs, toujours jeune de cœur." "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." (Always from Kindle Alexander)

If laws and principles were fixed and invariable, nations would not change them as readily as we change our shirts.