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Honore de Balzac Quotes - Page 7

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The fact is that love is of two kinds, one which commands, and one which obeys. The two are quite distinct, and the passion to which the one gives rise is not the passion of the other.

The fact is that love is of two kinds, one which commands, and one which obeys. The two are quite distinct, and the passion to which the one gives rise is not the passion of the other.

Honore de Balzac
Love, Hope, Passion
Honore de Balzac (2011). “Letters of Two Brides”, p.135, The Floating Press

It is beyond a doubt that during the sixteenth century, and the years immediately preceding and following it, poisoning had been brought to a pitch of perfection which remains unknown to modern chemistry, but which is indisputably proved by history. Italy, the cradle of modern science, was at that time, the inventor and mistress of these secrets, many of which are lost.

Honore de Balzac
Years, Perfection, History

The motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one.

Honore de Balzac
Love, Chivalry, Motto

A man who stops at nothing short of the law is very clever indeed!

Honore de Balzac
Clever, Men, Law

Hope is a light diet, but very stimulating.

Honore de Balzac
Light, Diets

Excess of joy is harder to bear than any amount of sorrow.

Honore de Balzac
Joy, Sorrow, Excess
Honore de Balzac (2011). “Letters of Two Brides”, p.259, The Floating Press

Hatred like love feeds on the merest trifles. Everything adds to it. Just as the being we love can do no wrong, so the one we hate can do no right.

Honore de Balzac
Hate, Like Love, Hatred

Vice is perhaps a desire to learn everything.

Honore de Balzac
Desire, Vices, Desire To Learn

Chance, my dear, is the sovereign deity in child-bearing.

Honore de Balzac
Children, Literature, Sovereign
Honore de Balzac (2011). “Letters of Two Brides”, p.172, The Floating Press

In intimate family life, there comes a moment when children, willingly or no, become the judges of their parents.

Honore de Balzac
Family, Children, Judging

For passion, be it observed, brings insight with it; it can give a sort of intelligence to simpletons, fools, and idiots, especially during youth.

Honore de Balzac
Passion, Giving, Village Idiots
"'Les Célibataires' ('A Bachelor's Establishment')". Book by Honoré de Balzac, 1842.

The boor covers himself, the rich man or the fool adorns himself, and the elegant man gets dressed.

Honore de Balzac
Fashion, Men, Fool

Old maids, having never bent their temper or their lives to other lives and other tempers, as woman's destiny requires, have for the most part a mania for making everything about them bend to them.

Honore de Balzac
Destiny, Maids, Bent

Whereas scoundrels become reconciled after knifing one another, lovers break up irrevocably over a mere glance or word.

Honore de Balzac
Lovers, Break, Scoundrels

In the first woman we love, we love everything. Growing older, we love the woman only.

Honore de Balzac
Love, Growing, Firsts

Women see everything or nothing according to the inclination of their hearts. Love is their sole light.

Honore de Balzac
Love, Heart, Light

When tempted to be unfaithful, the intellectual woman will try to inspire her husband with indifference, the sentimental woman with hatred, and the passionate woman with disgust.

Honore de Balzac
Husband, Hatred, Temptation

Only when one has learned to acknowledge that wiser minds have made better words to come out of our mouths may we truly, then, begin to speak them.

Honore de Balzac
Mind, Mouths, May

How sternly we reproach virtue for its failings, how indulgent we are to the better qualities of vice!

Honore de Balzac
Quality, Vices, Failing

Old men are prone to invest the futures of young men with their own past sorrows.

Honore de Balzac
Past, Men, Sorrow

A good husband is never the first to go to sleep at night or the last to awake in the morning.

Honore de Balzac
Inspirational, Good Morning, Marriage

A woman questions the man who loves exactly as a judge questions a criminal. This being so, a flash of the eye, a mere word, an inflection of the voice or a moment's hesitation suffice to expose the fact, betrayal or crime he is attempting to conceal.

Honore de Balzac
Betrayal, Eye, Men

When women love, they forgive everything...

Honore de Balzac
Forgiveness, Forgiving
"The Muse of the Department". Book by Honoré de Balzac, 1843.

With a woman, always make good use of a secret. She will be proportionally grateful to you, like a scoundrel who grants his respect to an honest man he has been unable to swindle.

Honore de Balzac
Grateful, Men, Secret

Death is as unexpected in his caprice as a courtesan in her disdain; but death is truer – Death has never forsaken any man

Honore de Balzac
Men, Unexpected, Caprice
Honore de Balzac (2014). “The Elixir of Life”, p.9, The Floating Press

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