836 Quotes by Honoré de Balzac

Several sorts of memory exist in us; body and mind each possesses one peculiar to itself. Nostalgia, for instance, is a malady of the physical memory.

Emulation is not rivalry. Emulation is the child of ambition; rivalry is the unlovable daughter of envy.

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.

When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt.

I prefer thought to action, an idea to a transaction, contemplation to activity.

Danger arouses interest. Where death is involved, the vilest criminal invariably stirs a little compassion.

A vocation is born to us all; happily most of us meet promptly our twin,--occupation.

Children, dear and loving children, can alone console a woman for the loss of her beauty.

Possibly the words materialism and spirituality express two sides of one and the same fact.