Quotes from Honore de Balzac

I come across journalists in theatre lobbies; it makes me shudder to see them. Journalism is an inferno, a bottomless pit of iniquity and treachery and lies; no one can traverse it undefiled, unless, like Dante, he is protected by Virgil's sacred laurel.

Una mujer es coqueta mientras no ama.

Exist? dou? fa?ete ale istoriei, cea oficial?, mincinoas?, care ne este adus? la cuno?tiin?? pentru a fi înv??at? – ad usum delphini – ?i fa?eta secret?, în care se g?sesc adev?ratele cauze ale evenimentelor.

No one was irritable; we have never known anyone to remain unhappy while digesting a good meal. We enjoy lingering in a becalmed state, a kind of midpoint between the reverie of a thinker and the contentment of a cud-chewing animal, a state that should be termed the physical melancholy of gastronomy.

Whoever wishes to rise above the common level must be prepared for a great struggle and recoil before no obstacle. A great writer is just simply a martyr whom the stake cannot kill.

Mankind are not perfect, but one age is more or less hypocritical than another, and then simpletons say that its morality is high or low.

The region is a desert of stones, a solitude with a character of its own, an arid spot, which could only be inhabited by beings who had either attained to absolute nullity, or were gifted with some abnormal strength of soul.

You have broken the ice, though you have not even scratched its glossy surface: you have placed your hand upon the croup of the most ferocious and savage, the most wakeful and clear-sighted, the most restless, the swiftest, the most jealous, the most ardent and violent, the simplest and most elegant, the most unreasonable, the most watchful chimera of the moral world — THE VANITY OF A WOMAN!

Our Father in heaven is surely on the side of fathers on earth who love their children.

Ah! love is a mystery; it can only live hidden in the depths of the heart. You say, even to your friend, 'Behold her whom I love,' and there is an end of love.

If I'd had a man of my own, I'd have followed him . . . down to hell.

Le monde est un bourbier, tâchons de rester sur les hauteurs.

Truth is less complete in its utterance; it does not put everything on the outside; it allows us to see what is within.

La avaricia, como el amor, posee el don de la visión de los acontecimientos futuros, que presiente y adivina.

La verdadera pasión se expresa con gritos, con suspiros fastidiosos para el hombre frío.

Un homme sans passion e sans argent reste maitre de sa personne; mais un maleureux qui aime ne s'appartient plus et ne peut pas se tuer. L'amour nous donne une sorte de religion pour nous-meme, nous respectons en nous une autre vie, il devient alors le plus horibble des malheures avec une espérance, une espérance qui vous fait accepter des tortures

Ah! Comme une existence peut devenir orageuse entre les quatre murs d'une mansarde! L'ame umaine est une fée, elle métamorphose une paille en diamants; sous sa bageutte les palais anchantés éclosent comme les fleurs des champs sous les chauds inspirations du soleil.

Dü?üncelerimi kendi üzerime çevirerek dü?ündüm: Kendisinin de özgür kalmas?n? dileyecek kadar sevmiyordu beni. Sevgi suç i?lemekten kaç?n?rsa s?n?r? var gibi görünür bize; oysa sevgi sonsuz olmal?d?r. Kalbim korkunç burkuldu. "Sevmiyor beni!" diye dü?ündüm.

Cu cât îi este mai josnic? via?a cu atât ?ine omul la ea, via?a lui e atunci un protest, o r?zbunare de toate clipele.

Una de las desgracias a las que se ven sometidas las grandes inteligencias es la de comprender por fuerza todas las cosas, tanto los vicios como las virtudes.

Basta a un joven encontrar una mujer que no le ama o que le quiere demasiado para que su vida quede desordenada. La felicidad engulle nuestras fuerzas como el infortunio mata nuestras virtudes.

Where some one else's welfare is concerned, a young girl becomes as ingenious as a thief. Guileless where she herself is in question, and full of foresight for me,--she is like a heavenly angel forgiving the strange incomprehensible sins of earth.

There everything is tolerated: the government and the guillotine, religion and the cholera. You are always acceptable to this world, you will never be missed by it. What, then, is the dominating impulse in this country without morals, without faith, without any sentiment, wherein, however, every sentiment, belief, and moral has its origin and end? It is gold and pleasure. Take

If you are to judge a man, you must know his secret thoughts, sorrows, and feelings; to know merely the outward events of a man's life would only serve to make a chronological table — a fool's notion of history.