836 Quotes by Honoré de Balzac

For businessmen, the world is a bale of banknotes in circulation; for most young men, it is a woman; for some women, it is a man; and for others it may be a salon, a coterie, a part of town or a whole city.

In smart society men are jealous of one another after the fashion of women.

Where poverty ceases, avarice begins.

Doubt follows white-winged hope with trembling steps.

Women are tenacious, and all of them should be tenacious of respect; without esteem they cannot exist; esteem is the first demand that they make of love.

Friendships last when each friend thinks he has a slight superiority over the other.

Noble passions are like vices: the more they are satisfied, the greater they grow, Mothers and gamblers are insatiable.

In a world of hunchbacks, a fine figure becomes a monstrosity.

Woman is a delightful instrument of pleasure, but it is necessary to know its trembling strings, to study the position of them, the timid keyboard, the fingering so changeful and capricious which befits it.