836 Quotes by Honoré de Balzac

When there is an old maid in the house, a watchdog is unnecessary.

What moralist can deny that well-bred and vicious people are much more agreeable than their virtuous counterparts? Having crimes to atone for, they provisionally solicit indulgence by showing leniency toward the defects of their judges. Thus they pass for excellent folk.

The woman who is about to deceive her husband always carefully thinks out how she is going to act, but she is never logical.

When we drink coffee, ideas march in like the army.

He’s got his dog trained so that it only does it on newspapers. The trouble is it does it when he’s reading the blasted things.

Behind every great fortune there is a crime.

The winter’s frost must rend the burr of the nut before the fruit is seen. So adversity tempers the human heart, to discover its real worth.

Some day you will find out that there is far more happiness in another’s happiness than in your own.

A monster which devours everything – that is familiarity.