Quotes from Honore de Balzac

Mademoiselle de Watteville, with a little flush of pride in thinking of the success of her Belvedere, discerned in herself a vast superiority over every one about her. No one guessed that a little girl, supposed to be a witless goose, had simply made up her mind to get a closer view of the lawyer Savaron's private study.

In other countries customs are very different. Englishmen pique themselves on never opening their lips; Germans are melancholy in a vehicle; Italians too wary to talk; Spaniards have no public conveyances; and Russians no roads.

Emilie, as much nettled by his politeness as she might have been by an impertinence, began talking to her brother in a louder voice than good taste enjoined; she turned and tossed her head, gesticulated eagerly, and laughed for no particular reason, less to amuse her brother than to attract the attention of the imperturbable stranger. None of her little arts succeeded.

Obey society?" cried the Marquise, with an involuntary shudder. "Eh! monsieur, it is the source of all our woes. God laid down no law to make us miserable; but mankind, uniting together in social life, have perverted God's work. Civilization deals harder measure to us women than nature does. Nature imposes upon us physical suffering which you have not alleviated; civilization has developed in us thoughts and feelings which you cheat continually.

What hopes must it raise in a young creature who, in the midst of sordid elements, had pined for a life of elegance! A sunbeam had fallen into the prison. Augustine was suddenly in love.

Paris est un sujet d'envie pour ceux qui ne l'ont jamais vu ; de bonheur ou de malheur (selon la fortune) pour ceux qui l'habitent, mais toujours de regrets pour ceux qui sont forcés de le quitter.

For a father it is hell to be without your children;

have perhaps observed how feeling can bridge over the distances created by society. If we are inferior to you in intellect, we can be your equals in devoted friendship. By the temperature — allow me the word — of our hearts I felt myself as near my patron as I was far below him in rank. In short, the soul has its clairvoyance; it has presentiments of suffering, grief, joy, antagonism, or hatred in others.

Les belles âmes ne peuvent pas rester longtemps en ce monde. Comment les grands sentiments s'allieraient-ils, en effet, à une société mesquine, petite, superficielle ?

There are two kinds of poets: those who feel and those who express themselves. The former are happier.

She was ignorant of love, having never known it, and, like all the other persons grouped about her, she saw nothing in marriage but a means of fortune. Passion was an unknown thing to these Catholic souls, these old people exclusively concerned about salvation, God, the king, and their property.

There is no such thing as a great talent without great will power.

The actors in this scene, so full of interest, commonplace as it seems, were provided with bits of pasteboard striped in many colors and numbered, and with counters of blue glass, and they appeared to be listening to the jokes of the notary, who never drew a number without making a remark, while in fact they were all thinking of Monsieur Grandet's millions.

The world you live in may cry out a bit, but success justifies all things. The worst thing in this world, my dear, is to be without money; that's our disease, yours and mine.

Dinner time arrives, and as a rule I have done nothing. Now comes the problem which faces me twice every day — how to suffice in my own person for two children, put on their bibs, turn up their sleeves, and get them to eat. In the midst of these ever-recurring cares, joys, and catastrophes, the only person neglected in the house is myself

Mon Dieu! why could they not always be little girls?

Everything can be excused and justified in an age which has transformed vice into virtue and virtue into vice.

when he smiled, displayed a set of white teeth which would have done credit to a shark.

multe femei triste al c?ror suflet, desf?cut de toate leg?turile omene?ti, tânjea dup? îndelunga sinucidere s?vâr?it? în sânul lui Dumnezeu.

Even so, step by step the daylight decreases, and the cicerone's droning voice grows hollower as the traveler descends into the Catacombs. The comparison holds good! Who shall say which is more ghastly, the sight of the bleached skulls or of dried-up human hearts?

Were it not for the cabarets, would not the Government be overturned every Tuesday? Happily, by Tuesday, this people is glutted, sleeps off its pleasure, is penniless, and returns to its labor, to dry bread, stimulated by a need of material procreation, which has become a habit to it.

Asl?nda cahil, ama do?u?tan zeki olan, dü?üncelerini sistemli bir bütünlük içinde geli?tirmeye al??k?n ki?iler, kendilerinden daha üstün olanlar?n kaç?rd??? yükseklikleri ula?t?.

Celebrity, my dear fellow, is based upon controversy.

Paris is a queer place," said Lucien; it seemed to him that he saw self-interest squatting in every corner.