The collection / 68 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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68 results · Page 3 of 3Play this collection ▷

01c. 1824 AD

No one was irritable; we have never known anyone to remain unhappy while digesting a good meal. We enjoy lingering in a becalmed state, a kind of midpoint between the reverie of a thinker and the contentment of a cud-chewing animal, a state that should be termed the physical melancholy of gastronomy.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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02c. 1824 AD

Hortense was a wife; Valerie a mistress.Many men desire to have these two editions of the same work, although it is proof of deep inferiority in a man if he cannot make his wife his mistress. Seeking variety is a sign of impotence.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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03c. 1824 AD

Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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04c. 1824 AD

Though the human heart may have to pause for rest when climbing the heights of affection it rarely stops on the slippery slope of hatred.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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05c. 1824 AD

Of necessity she went further in aversion than she had gone in love, for her hatred was not in proportion to her love but to her disappointed hopes.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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06c. 1824 AD

So, my dear fellow, if I don't believe in God, I believe still less in man.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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07c. 1824 AD

If youth were not ignorant and timid, civilization would be impossible.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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08c. 1824 AD

He hesitated till the last moment, but finally dropped them in the box, saying, "I shall win!"--the cry of a gambler, the cry of the great general, the compulsive cry that has ruined more men than it has ever saved.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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09c. 1824 AD

If the artist does not fling himself, without reflecting, into his work, as Curtis flung himself into the yawning gulf, as the soldier flings himself into the enemy's trenches, and if, once in this crater, he does not work like a miner on whom the walls of his gallery have fallen in; if he contemplates difficulties instead of overcoming them one by one ... he is simply looking on at the suicide of his own talent.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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10c. 1824 AD

He became...the ideal of that virtue which delights in its own work...doing everything with simplicity and dignity, for he seemed to realize that his objective added nobility to everything he did.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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11c. 1824 AD

Here comes Mamma Vauquerr, fair as a starrr; and strung up like a bunch of carrots. Aren't we suffocating ourselves a wee bit?' he asked, placing a hand on the top of her corset. 'A bit of a crush in the vestibule, here, Mamma! If we start crying, there'll be an explosion. Never mind, I'll be there to collect the bits--just like an antiquary.''Now, there's the language of true French gallantry,' murmured Madame Vauquer in an aside to Madame Couture.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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12c. 1824 AD

There are men who put the weight of a coffin into their deliberations as they bargain for Cashmere shawls for their wives, as they go up the staircase of a theatre, or think of going to the Bouffons, or of setting up a carriage; who are murderers in thought when dear ones, with the irresistable charm of innocence, hold up childish foreheads to be kissed with a ‘Good-night, father!’ Hourly they meet the gaze of eyes they would fain close forever, eyes that still open each morning to the light. . . God alone knows the number of those who are parricides in thought

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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13c. 1824 AD

A man like you is a god, not just a machine covered with skin, but a theater where fine feelings sprout and grow-and feelings are all that matters, as far as I'm concerned. Is a feeling anything but an entire world poured into a thought?

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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14c. 1824 AD

We flew back home like swallows. 'Is it happiness that makes us so light?' Agathe asked.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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15c. 1824 AD

We estimate wrongdoing in proportion to the purity of our conscience

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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16c. 1824 AD

There are no principles; there are only events. There is no good and bad, there are only circumstances. The superior man espouses events and circumstances in order to guide them. If there were principles and fixed laws, nations would not change them as we change our shirts and a man can not be expected to be wiser than an entire nation.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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17c. 1824 AD

The word 'love,' used in connection with the reproduction of our species, is the most odious blasphemy taught in our times.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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18c. 1824 AD

Alas! Where love is concerned, self-interested deception is superior to the truth itself, which is why so many men pay so high a price to clever deceivers.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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19c. 1824 AD

The more a man judges, the less he loves

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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20c. 1824 AD

Paris that eternal monstrous marvel … the city of a hundred-thousand novels … a living creature, the great courtesan whose face and heart and mind-boggling morals they know: “They” are the lovers of Paris.

Honoré de Balzac / quote

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