836 Quotes by Honoré de Balzac

If certain women walk straight into adultery, there are many others who cling to numerous hopes, and commit sin only after wandering through a maze of sorrows.

Incurable wounds are those inflicted by tongue and eye, by mockery and disdain.

In France we can cauterize wounds but we do not yet know any remedy for the injuries inflicted by a bon mot.

Kindness is not without its rocks ahead. People are apt to put it down to an easy temper and seldom recognize it as the secret striving of a generous nature; whilst, on the other hand, the ill-natured get credit for all the evil they refrain from.

Our most bitter enemies are our own kith and kin. Kings have no brothers, no sons, no mother!

The questioning spirit is the rebellious spirit. A rebellion is always either a cloak to hide a prince, or the swaddling wrapper of a new rule.

A deist is an atheist with an eye cocked for the off-chance of some advantage.

Hope is a light diet, but very stimulating.

Our most natural feelings are those we are loath to confess, and fatuity is among them.