Honore de Balzac Quotes

The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute.
Honore de Balzac

Art, Silent, Motherhood

Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence.
Honore de Balzac

Wanted, Whole, Existence

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.
Honore de Balzac

Giant, Mechanism, Operated

Virtue, perhaps, is nothing more than politeness of soul.
Honore de Balzac

Nothing, Soul, Virtue

Men die in despair, while spirits die in ecstasy.
Honore de Balzac

Men, Die, While

But reason always cuts a poor figure beside sentiment; the one being essentially restricted, like everything that is positive, while the other is infinite.
Honore de Balzac

Positive, Everything, Poor

The man as he converses is the lover; silent, he is the husband.
Honore de Balzac

Husband, Silent, Lover

Unintelligent persons are like weeds that thrive in good ground; they love to be amused in proportion to the degree in which they weary themselves.
Honore de Balzac

Love, Good, Themselves

Wisdom is that apprehension of heavenly things to which the spirit rises through love.
Honore de Balzac

Love, Wisdom, Through

A flow of words is a sure sign of duplicity.
Honore de Balzac

Words, Sure, Sign

An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.
Honore de Balzac

Color, Existence, Vocation

At fifteen, beauty and talent do not exist; there can only be promise of the coming woman.
Honore de Balzac

Beauty, Woman, Talent

Chance, my dear, is the sovereign deity in child-bearing.
Honore de Balzac

Chance, Dear, Sovereign

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

Beauty, Alone, Children

Excess of joy is harder to bear than any amount of sorrow.
Honore de Balzac

Joy, Sorrow, Bear

In diving to the bottom of pleasure we bring up more gravel than pearls.
Honore de Balzac

Bring, Pleasure, Bottom

Nature makes only dumb animals. We owe the fools to society.
Honore de Balzac

Nature, Society, Makes

Nothing is a greater impediment to being on good terms with others than being ill at ease with yourself.
Honore de Balzac

Good, Yourself, Nothing

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

Mother, Bitter, Brothers

Suicide, moreover, was at the time in vogue in Paris: what more suitable key to the mystery of life for a skeptical society?
Honore de Balzac

Life, Time, Society

The duration of passion is proportionate with the original resistance of the woman.
Honore de Balzac

Woman, Passion, Original

The man whose action habitually bears the stamp of his mind is a genius, but the greatest genius is not always equal to himself, or he would cease to be human.
Honore de Balzac

Mind, Greatest, Human

We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are.
Honore de Balzac

Happiness, Happy, Bad

What is art? Nature concentrated.
Honore de Balzac

A grocer is attracted to his business by a magnetic force as great as the repulsion which renders it odious to artists.
Honore de Balzac

Great, Business, Artists

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Biography

Nationality: French

Born: May 20, 1799

Died: August 18, 1850

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