836 Quotes by Honoré de Balzac

The world will avenge itself upon all happiness in which it has no share.

L'amour n'est pas seulement un sentiment, il est un art aussi. Love is not only a feeling; it is also an art.

It would be curious to know what leads a man to become a stationer rather than a baker, when he is no longer compelled, as among the Egyptians, to succeed to his father's craft.

Virginity, like all monstrosities, possesses special riches and its own absorbing grandeur. Among the chaste, life forces are economized and thus gain in resistance and durability.

The sanctity of womanhood is incompatible with social liberty and social claims; and for a woman emancipation means corruption.

What makes friendship indissolute and what doubles its charms is a feeling we find lacking in love: I mean certitude.

When she lives at his palace, the maiden niece of a bishop can pass for a respectable woman because, if she has a love affair, she is obliged to hoodwink her uncle.

You may imitate, but never counterfeit.

Le bonheur engloutit nos forces, comme le malheur e teint nos vertus. Happiness engulfs our strength, just as misfortune extinguishes our virtues.