Honoré de Balzac Quotes

“It is easier to be a lover than a husband for the simple reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day than to say pretty things from time to time.”

“Modesty is the conscience of the body.”

“At fifteen, beauty and talent do not exist; there can only be promise of the coming woman.”

“Memories beautify life, but the capacity to forget makes it bearable.”

“It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action.”

“Behind every fortune there is a crime.”

“Thought is a key to all treasures; the miser's gains are ours without his cares. Thus I have soared above this world, where my enjoyment have been intellectual joys.”

“The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute.”

“Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.”

“Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.”

“A mother's life, you see, is one long succession of dramas, now soft and tender, now terrible. Not an hour but has its joys and fears.”

“Do you know what is the hardest thing in life? To make a choice.”

“Some day you will find out that there is far more happiness in another's happiness than in your own.”

“Unintelligent persons are like weeds that thrive in good ground; they love to be amused in proportion to the degree in which they weary themselves.”

“The victory always has a lot of parents but the defeat is always an orphan.”

“Lovers have a way of using this word, nothing, which implies exactly the opposite.”

“Poetry is only born after painful journeys into the vast regions of thought.”

“It is as absurd to say that a man can't love one woman all the time as it is to say that a violinist needs several violins to play the same piece of music.”

“There are two histories : official history, lying, and then secret history, where you find the real causes of events.”

“Nothing is a greater impediment to being on good terms with others than being ill at ease with yourself.”