836 Quotes by Honoré de Balzac

People who are in love suspect nothing or everything.

Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness.

This surface good-nature which captivates a new acquaintance and is no bar to treachery, which knows no scruple and is never at fault for an excuse, which makes an outcry at the wound which it condones, is one of the most distinctive features of the journalist. This camaraderie (the word is a stroke of genius) corrodes the noblest minds; it eats into their pride like rust, kills the germ of great deeds, and lends a sanction to moral cowardice.

Everybody all over the world takes a wife's estimate into account in forming an opinion of a man.

Self-interest is an ineffable feeling which shall follow us into God's very presence since they say there is a hierarchy even among the Holy Saints.

Women are happy to possess a man whom all women covet.

The greatest tyranny is to love I where we are not loved again.

Self-love is as protective as the Deity; Disenchantment is as perspicacious as a surgeon; Experience is as provident as a mother. Such are the theologic virtues of marriage.

The most virtuous women have something within them, something that is never chaste.