More from Honore de Balzac
In intimate family life, there comes a moment when children, willingly or no, become the judges of their parents.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac Old men are prone to invest the futures of young men with their own past sorrows.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac Poverty is a divine stepmother who does for youths what their own mothers were unable to do. It introduces them to frugality, to the world and to life.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac To be happy, a man must love his wife as she chooses to be loved.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac A good husband is never the first to go to sleep at night or the last to awake in the morning.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster that devours everything: familiarity.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac Can you find a man who loves the occupation that provides him with a livelihood? Professions are like marriages; we end by feeling only their inconveniences.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac How can we explain the perpetuity of envy–a vice which yields no return?
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac How sternly we reproach virtue for its failings, how indulgent we are to the better qualities of vice!
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac The good we do to others is spoilt unless we efface ourselves so completely that those we help have no sense of inferiority.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac People exaggerate both happiness and unhappiness; we are never so fortunate nor so unfortunate as people say we are.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac When Religion and Royalty are swept away, the people will attack the great, and after the great, they will fall upon the rich.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac Events are never absolute, their outcome depends entirely upon the individual.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac As a rule, only the poor are generous.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac Everybody all over the world takes a wife’s estimate into account in forming an opinion of a man.
Honore de BalzacHonore de Balzac
Original quotes
From our community writers
Even with broken wings, she dares to fly. And even with a broken heart, she dares to love.
Divya khandalDivya khandal And I refuse to apologize until the very end for the way that I feel – my feelings are valid too.
Carmen AmadosCarmen Amados Contemplate your own mortality daily, then see how much we must change.
Chris AllchinChris Allchin Poetry is the voice of the soul and the inspiration of the heart.
Teresa PeresTeresa Peres We parted sadly, like children in the street on a pleasant june afternoon.
Iestyn TudorIestyn Tudor And what shall I call you? Yours. In this life, the ones before, and all others thereafter.
Alexandra MichelleAlexandra Michelle If I could go back to a time I’d be with you. And I’d thank you again for almost being the healing to my heart.
Aimee C. HoveyAimee C. Hovey I was a living breathing nightmare and he was my favorite dream catcher.
Juwairiyyah OlgarJuwairiyyah Olgar
Meet the writers
More on chivalry
It’s stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.
BonoBono The idea of a stag hunt evokes chivalry – knights in jerkins and hose, ladies on sidesaddles with wimples and billowing dresses, a white stag symbolizing something-or-other, and Robin Hood getting in the way. An actual stag hunt is more like a horseback meeting of a county planning commission.
P. J. O'RourkeP. J. O'Rourke It’s odd that men feel they must protect women, since for the most part they must be protected from men.
Abigail Scott DuniwayAbigail Scott Duniway