Authors:

Honore de Balzac Quotes - Page 17

All Quotes Affection Age Ambition Army Art Beauty Character Children Coffee Compassion Conscience Country Crime Desire Doubt Drama Earth Effort Energy Envy Evil Failing Fame Family Fashion Fate Feelings Fighting Forgiveness Funny Generosity Genius Giving Glory Gold Gratitude Grief Happiness Hate Hatred Heart Heaven History Home House Human Nature Husband Hypocrisy Imagination Innocence Inspirational Intuition Jealousy Joy Judging Labor Liberty Life Literature Loss Love Lying Marriage Memories Modesty Mom Money Motherhood Nature Pain Passion Past Perfection Pleasure Poetry Poverty Power Praise Pride Religion Science Self Love Silence Simplicity Sin Society Solitude Sorrow Soul Spirituality Spring Struggle Study Stupidity Suffering Talent True Love Twins Victory Virtue Vision Weakness Wealth Wife Wine Winning Work Writing
I am a galley slave to pen and ink.

I am a galley slave to pen and ink.

Honore de Balzac
Writing, Ink, Slave
Letter to Zulma Carraud, translated by C. Lamb Kenney, July 2, 1832.

In Paris, when certain people see you ready to set your foot in the stirrup, some pull your coat-tails, others loosen the buckle of the strap that you may fall and crack your skull; one wrenches off your horse's shoes, another steals your whip, and the least treacherous of them all is the man whom you see coming to fire his pistol at you point blank.

Honore de Balzac
Horse, Fall, Men
Honore de Balzac (2014). “The Atheist's Mass”, p.18, The Floating Press

Love is the most melodious of all harmonies.

Honore de Balzac
Love, Love Is, Harmony
Honore de Balzac (2014). “Analytical Studies: Physiology of Marriage and Petty Troubles of Married Life”, p.82, The Floating Press

What is a child, monsieur, but the image of two beings, the fruit of two sentiments spontaneously blended?

Honore de Balzac
Children, Two, Fruit
Honore de Balzac (2015). “A Woman of Thirty: Works of Balzac”, p.70, 谷月社

Several sorts of memory exist in us; body and mind each possesses one peculiar to itself. Nostalgia, for instance, is a malady of the physical memory.

Honore de Balzac
Memories, Mind, Peculiar

We do not attach ourselves lastingly to anything that has not cost us care, labor or longing.

Honore de Balzac
Cost, Care, Longing

A married woman is a slave you must know how to seat upon a throne.

Honore de Balzac
Sarcastic, Sarcasm, Wife

Squeeze marriage as much as you like, you will never extract anything from it but fun for bachelors and boredom for husbands.

Honore de Balzac
Marriage, Fun, Husband

It is always assumed by the empty-headed, who chatter about themselves for want of something better, that people who do not discuss their affairs openly must have something to hide.

Honore de Balzac
People, Want, Affair

Show me the woman, however loyal, who does not seek to rouse desire.

Honore de Balzac
Desire, Doe, Loyal

Women are as they are; they necessarily have the defects of their virtues.

Honore de Balzac
Women, Virtue, Defects

Man's condition is horrible because, no matter what form his happiness may take, it arises from some species of ignorance.

Honore de Balzac
Ignorance, Men, May

It is the mark of a great man that he puts to flight all ordinary calculations. He is at once sublime and touching, childlike and of the race of giants.

Honore de Balzac
Men, Race, Touching
Honore de Balzac (2011). “Letters of Two Brides”, p.108, The Floating Press

Power does not consist in striking with force or with frequency, but in striking true.

Honore de Balzac
Power, Doe, Force
Honore de Balzac (2014). “Analytical Studies: Physiology of Marriage and Petty Troubles of Married Life”, p.89, The Floating Press

If the human heart sometimes finds moments of pause as it ascends the slopes of affection, it rarely halts on the way down.

Honore de Balzac
Heart, Way, Affection

Who is to decide which is the grimmer sight: withered hearts, or empty skulls?

Honore de Balzac
Heart, Skulls, Sight

Marriage is an institution necessary to the maintenance of society but contrary to the laws of nature.

Honore de Balzac
Marriage, Law, Maintenance

Conventions are often more cruel than the law.

Honore de Balzac
Law, Conventions

All we are is in the soul.

Honore de Balzac
Soul

Necessity is the spur of genius.

Honore de Balzac
Spurs, Genius

One can imagine the look the two lovers exchanged; it was like a flame, for virtuous lovers have not a shred of hypocrisy.

Honore de Balzac
Flames, Two, Hypocrisy

France is a country that loves to change their government if it is always the same.

Honore de Balzac
Country, Government, France

Inspiration is the opportunity of genius.

Honore de Balzac
Inspiration, Opportunity, Genius
Honore de Balzac (2010). “Cousin Bette”, p.334, The Floating Press

There is something great and terrible about suicide.

Honore de Balzac
Suicide, Terrible
Honore de Balzac (2011). “The Magic Skin: Or The Wild Ass's Skin”, p.13, The Floating Press

The man whom fate employs to awaken love in the heart of a young girl is often unaware of his work and therefore leaves it uncompleted.

Honore de Balzac
Love, Girl, Heart

You May Also Like: