Quotes from Honore de Balzac

He had eaten as much as a travelling actor and drunk like the sands of the desert" Maxence Gilet

But, after all, too much knowledge, like ignorance, brings you to a negation.

Why did the father of these poor girls, the Comte de Granville, a wise and upright magistrate (though sometimes led away by politics), refrain from protecting the helpless little creatures from such crushing despotism? Alas! by mutual understanding, about ten years after marriage, he and his wife were separated while living under one roof. The father had taken upon himself the education of his sons, leaving that of the daughters to his wife.

People who love don't doubt in anything, or doubt in everything.

Kaunis ei ole sen arvoista kuin kestävä, ja kestävä, se olen minä!

Mademoiselle des Touches (Camille Maupin) is George Sand in character, and the personal description of her, though applied by some to the famous Mademoiselle Georges, is easily recognized from Couture's drawing.

Self-distrust vanishes as triumph succeeds to triumph, and modesty is, perhaps, distrust of itself.

Le char de la civilisation, semblable à celui de l'idole de Jaggernaut, à peine retardé par un cœur moins facile à broyer que les autres et qui enraye sa roue, l'a brisé bientôt et continue sa marche glorieuse.

Men bow before the power of genius; they hate it, and try to slander it, because genius does not divide the spoil; but if genius persists, they bow before it.

Le crime et la folie ont quelque similitude. Voir les prisonniers de la Conciergerie au préau, ou voir des fous dans le jardin d'une maison de santé, c'est une même chose.

Doing his utmost, deploying all his energy, a young man setting out from zero can wind up after ten years somewhere below where he started.

todos os membros de sua numerosa família, por mais moços que fossem, acabaram, como ele dizia graciosamente ao seu senhor, por se colocar como um bicho-da-seda sobre as folhas do orçamento.

Will anyone understand it outside Paris? That is open to doubt. The special features of this scene, full of local colour and observations, can only be appreciated in the area lying between the heights of Montmartre and the hills of Montrouge, in that illustrious valley of flaking plasterwork and gutters black with mud; a valley full of suffering that is real, and of joy that is often false, where life is so hectic that it takes something quite extraordinary to produce feelings that last.

Lucien took the cigar and lit it, in the Spanish fashion, from that of the priest. "He is right," Lucien thought; "there is plenty of time to kill myself.

La vida sencilla y mecánica conduce a una cordura insensata ahogando nuestra inteligencia con el trabajo, en tanto que la vida pasada en el vacío de las abstracciones o en los abismos del mundo moral lleva a una loca cordura. En una palabra: matar los sentimientos para vivir hasta muy viejos o morir jóvenes aceptando el martirio de las pasiones. Esta es nuestra sentencia.

Bir ak?am onu bir günbat?m? önünde dindarca dü?ünür buldum, güne? vadiyi bir yatak gibi göstererek doruklar? öyle bir ?ehvetle k?zart?yordu ki, do?an?n yarat?klar?n? a?ka ça??rmas?na arac?l?k eden ?u duras?z ilahiler ilahisini duymamak olanaks?zd?.

So an honest man is the common enemy.

La sociedad, el mundo, nuestras costumbres, vistos de cerca, me han revelado el peligro de mi creencia inocente y la superfluidad de mis fervientes trabajos. Estas provisiones son inútiles al ambicioso. ¡El que persigue la fortuna ha de llevar poco peso en la mochila!

A lover always thinks of his mistress first and himself second; with a husband it runs the other way.

Las personas generosas son malos comerciantes. David tenía uno de esos caracteres pudorosos y afectivos que se espantan ante una discusión y que ceden en el momento en que el adversario les toca la fibra sensible.

Every day, before our eyes, a moral phenomenon of amazing profundity takes place which is, nevertheless, so simple as never to be noticed.

Los hombres que están en el Poder tienen tanta necesidad de creer en el mérito reconocido, en el talento descarado, como en el sabio hay puerilidad en creer en las recompensas humanas.

Nada en los lenguajes humanos, ninguna traducción del pensamiento hecha con ayuda de los colores, los mármoles, las palabras o los sonidos sabría expresar el nervio, la verdad, la finitud, lo súbito del pensamiento en el alma!

El amor pasa por transformaciones infinitas antes de mezclarse para siempre con nuestra vida y de teñirse para siempre de su color de llama. El secreto de esta infusión imperceptible se escapa al análisis del artista.