Quotes from Honore de Balzac

Balzac's first works were written without any overall plan, but by 1830 the author began to group his first novels (e.g. Sarrasine, Gobseck) into a series entitled Scènes de la vie privée (Scenes from Private Life).

L'amour a ses intuitions, comme le génie a les siennes.

So verbringt man einen guten Teil seines Lebens damit, auszujäten, was man in der Jugend in seinem Herzen hat wachsen lassen. Diese Operation nennt man: Erfahrungen machen,

L'homme n'est ni bon ni méchant, il naît avec des instincts et des aptitudes ; la Société, loin de le dépraver, comme l'a prétendu Rousseau, le perfectionne, le rend meilleur ; mais l'intérêt développe aussi ses penchants mauvais. Le christianisme, et surtout le catholicisme, étant, comme je l'ai dit dans le Médecin de Campagne, un système complet de répression des tendances dépravées de l'homme, est le plus grand élément d'Ordre Social.

It was at this time that he devised the idea of having characters reappear from novel to novel, and the first novel to use this technique was Le Père Goriot in 1834. The idea may seem simple now to modern readers, but having characters reappearing in novels over a time period creates an impression as though they have lives of their own.

Las angustias de los infortunados no son menos dignas de atención que las crisis que revolucionan la vida de los poderosos y de los privilegiados de la tierra. Y además, ¿acaso no hay tanto dolor en unos como en otros?

Like most spoiled children, she tyrannized over those who loved her, and kept her blandishments for those who were indifferent. Her faults grew with her growth, and her parents were to gather the bitter fruits of this disastrous education. At the age of nineteen Emilie de Fontaine had not yet been pleased to make a choice from among the many young men whom her father's politics brought to his entertainments.

All things are true, all things are false. Moral truths as well as human beings change their aspect according to their surroundings, to the point of being actually unrecognizable.

La cuestión del vestido es, por otra parte, de gran importancia para quienes quieren aparentar que tienen lo que no tienen, porque es a menudo el mejor medio de poseerlo más adelante.

J'écris à la lueur de deux Vérités éternelles : la Religion, la Monarchie, deux nécessités que les événements contemporains proclament, et vers lesquelles tout écrivain de bon sens doit essayer de ramener notre pays. Sans être l'ennemi de l'Election, principe excellent

Por fin, Du Châtelet vio a Lucien y le dirigió uno de esos pequeños saludos, secos y fríos, con los cuales un hombre desacredita a otro dando a entender a las personas de mundo el ínfimo lugar que ocupa en la escala social.

I went out, leaving traces of my muddy boots on the carpet which covered the paved staircase. I like to leave mud on a rich man's carpet; it is not petty spite; I like to make them feel a touch of the claws of Necessity.

Je suis venu me réfugier ici au fond d'un château, comme dans un monastère.

The most callous of her guests admired her as young Rome applauded some gladiator who could die smiling.

Ce qui rend les amitiés indissolubles et double leur charme, est un sentiment qui manque à l'amour, la certitude.

The neck which was short and thick, seemed to tempt the axe.

Triste condition de l'homme! il n'y a pas un de ses bounheurs qui ne vienne d'une ignorance quelconque." ??? ??? ???? ?? ??????? ??? ??? ?? ???? ???????? ??? ??? ????? ??? ??????? ????? ?? ??? ??

Para ser traducida por la voz, así como para ser comprendida, la poesía exige una religiosa atención. Ha de crearse entre el lector y el auditorio una íntima complicidad, sin la cual no se produce la comunicación eléctrica de los sentimientos. Si falta esta comunión de las almas, el poeta se encuentra en la misma situación que un ángel que tratara de entonar un himno celestial en medio de las risas burlonas del infierno.

Any one who molests Father Goriot will have henceforward to reckon with me," said Eugene, looking at the old man's neighbor; "he is worth all the rest of us put together.

Oh, my friend, when you love, love a woman whom you are sure that you can love always. Never forsake a woman.

the daylight subdued by four red walls with narrow white stripes adopted a pink glow which lent faces and every last detail a mysterious grace and a fantastical quality…Sunbeams fell across the house obliquely, wrapping around it like a scarf, cutting across the parlor, expiring in a peculiar sheen on the paneling along the walls that backed onto the courtyard, and enveloping [the] woman in the scarlet zone projected by the damask curtain draped along the window.

hay que ensuciarse las manos si uno quiere cocinar;

There are fools that love without calculation and wise men that calculate while they love.

Great pain, therefore, pain that arises to anguish, should be suffering so deadly, that past, present, and future are alike included in its grip, and no part of life is left sound and whole. Never afterwards can we think the same thoughts as before. Anguish engraves itself in ineffaceable characters on mouth and brow; it passes through us, destroying or relaxing the springs that vibrate to enjoyment, leaving behind in the soul the seeds of a disgust for all things in this world.