Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster that devours everything: familiarity.
HONORE DE BALZACMarriage must incessantly contend with a monster that devours everything: familiarity.
HONORE DE BALZACThe first thing necessary to win the heart of a woman is opportunity.
HONORE DE BALZACA man is a poor creature compared to a woman.
HONORE DE BALZACLove may be or it may not, but where it is, it ought to reveal itself in its immensity.
HONORE DE BALZACDeath is as unexpected in his caprice as a courtesan in her disdain; but death is truer – Death has never forsaken any man.
HONORE DE BALZACWhere poverty ceases, avarice begins.
HONORE DE BALZACIn diving to the bottom of pleasure we bring up more gravel than pearls.
HONORE DE BALZACWoman is closer to angels than man because she knows how to mingle an infinite tenderness with the most absolute compassion.
HONORE DE BALZACTrue love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure.
HONORE DE BALZACIf we all said to people’s faces what we say behind one another’s backs, society would be impossible.
HONORE DE BALZACTo be happy, a man must love his wife as she chooses to be loved.
HONORE DE BALZACA courage which looks easy & yet is rare; the courage of a teacher repeating day after day the same lessons – the least rewarded of all forms of courage.
HONORE DE BALZACForgetting is the great secret of strong and creative lives.
HONORE DE BALZACCan 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 BALZACThe press is like a woman: sublime when it lies, it will not let go until it has forced you to believe it. The public, like a foolish husband, always succumbs.
HONORE DE BALZACTo live in the presence of great truths and eternal laws, to be led by permanent ideals – that is what keeps a man patient when the world ignores him, and calm and unspoiled when the world praises him.
HONORE DE BALZAC