Quotes from Honore de Balzac

The virtues we acquire, which develop slowly within us, are the invisible links that bind each one of our existences to the others -- existences which the spirit alone remembers, for matter has no memory for spiritual things.

Ba?kalar?n?n mutlulu?u, art?k mutlu olamayacaklar?n sevinci olur.

Christianity and monarchy are twin principles.

If we could picture the thoughts of those who stand about a deathbed, what fearful sights should we not see? Money is always the motive-spring of the schemes elaborated, of all the plans that are made and the plots that are woven about it!

Retrouver Paris! savez-vous ce que c'est, ô Parisiens?

O maior amor é o não correspondido. Cresce para aumentar avidez da carne; tortura para valorizar o prazer.

He became...the ideal of that virtue which delights in its own work...doing everything with simplicity and dignity, for he seemed to realize that his objective added nobility to everything he did.

La Société ne fait-elle pas de l'homme, suivant les milieux où son action se déploie, autant d'hommes différents qu'il y a de variétés en zoologie ? [...] Il a donc existé, il existera donc de tout temps des Espèces Sociales comme il y a des Espèces Zoologiques.

Elle était jolie par juxtaposition.

I can no longer think of anything but you. In spite of myself, my imagination carries me to you. I grasp you, I kiss you, I caress you, a thousand of the most amorous caresses take possession of me.

Unele fiin?e sunt ca ni?te zerouri, le trebuie o cifr? înainte, ?i numai atunci nimicnicia lor dobânde?te o valoare neb?nuit?. Eu nu pot dobândi valoare decât printr-o alian?? cu o voin?? puternic?, neînduplecat?.

My dear Pierre, the affair is clear, you'll have your head chopped off. Let that be a lesson to you!

The savage has only impulse; the civilized man has impulses and ideas. And in the savage the brain retains, as we may say, but few impressions, it is wholly at the mercy of the feeling that rushes in upon it; while in the civilized man, ideas sink into the heart and change it; he has a thousand interests and many feelings, where the savage has but one at a time.

Pourquoi deux mois de prison au dandy qui, dans une nuit, ôte à un enfant la moitié de sa fortune, et pourquoi le bagne au pauvre diable qui vole un billet de mille francs avec les circonstances aggravantes ? Voilà vos lois. Il

Il existe dans tous les sentiments humains une fleur primitive, engendrée par un noble enthousiasme qui va toujours faiblissant jusqu'à ce que le bonheur ne soit plus qu'un souvenir et la gloire un mensonge

There are no priinciples, there are only events. There is no good and bad, ther are only circumstances. The superior man espouses events and circumstances in order to guide them. If there were princiles and fixed laws, nations would not change them as we change our shirts and a man cannot be expected to be wiser than an entire nation.

she perceived several couples whose too hearty glee suggested nothing conjugal;

Ma chi può lusingarsi di essere compreso? Moriamo tutti incompresi. È il detto delle donne e quello degli scrittori.

If only I could bear all your sorrows for you! . . . Ah! you were so happy when you were little and still with me —

The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.

unrecognized power is apt to avenge itself for lowly station by viewing the world from a lofty standpoint.

No vivimos nosotros también de muertos? Pues ¿qué son las herencias?

In looking forward to what remains to be done, my readers will perhaps echo what my publishers say, "Please God to spare you!" I only ask to be less tormented by men and things than I have hitherto been since I began this terrific labor. I

The tranquility and peace that a scholar needs is something as sweet and as exhilarating as love.