quote · Legacy record
However gross a man may be, the minute he expresses a strong and genuine affection, some inner secretion alters his features, animates his gestures, and colors his voice. The stupidest man will often, under the stress of passion, achieve heights of eloquence, in thought if not in language, and seem to move in some luminous sphere. Goriot's voice and gesture had at this moment the power of communication that characterizes the great actor. Are not our finer feelings the poems of the human will?
However gross a man may be, the minute he expresses a strong and genuine affection, some inner secretion alters his features, animates his gestures, and colors his voice. The stupidest man will often, under the stress of passion, achieve heights of eloquence, in thought if not in language, and seem to move in some luminous sphere. Goriot's voice and gesture had at this moment the power of communication that characterizes the great actor. Are not our finer feelings the poems of the human will?
Approximate author period: c. 1824 AD · industrial
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- Author or tradition
- Honoré de Balzac
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1824 AD · industrial
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1799 to 1850; Wikidata Q9711, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9711 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 75274; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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