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Honore de Balzac

63 quotes

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) was a French novelist and playwright whose ambitious series of interlinked novels and stories, collectively titled *La Comédie humaine*, paints a sweeping portrait of French society in the decades after the fall of Napoleon. Balzac's keen observation of human nature and social dynamics influenced generations of writers.

“The fact is that love is of two kinds, one which commands, and one which obeys. The two are quite distinct, and the passion to which the one gives rise is not the passion of the other.”

— Honore de Balzac

Love

All Quotes by Honore de Balzac

“At fifteen, beauty and talent do not exist there can only be promise of the coming woman.”

— Honore de Balzac

Beauty

“Passion is universal humanity. Without it religion, history, romance and art would be useless.”

— Honore de Balzac

Art

“Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane.”

— Honore de Balzac

Great

“Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.”

— Honore de Balzac

Power

“Many men are deeply moved by the mere semblance of suffering in a woman they take the look of pain for a sign of constancy or of love.”

— Honore de Balzac

Men

“A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea.”

— Honore de Balzac

Love

“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

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

— Honore de Balzac

Alone

“There are some women whose pregnancy would make some sly bachelor smile.”

— Honore de Balzac

Smile

“The life of a man who deliberately runs through his fortune often becomes a business speculation his friends, his pleasures, patrons, and acquaintances are his capital.”

— Honore de Balzac

Business

“Men die in despair, while spirits die in ecstasy.”

— Honore de Balzac

Men

“Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.”

— Honore de Balzac

Great

“The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”

— Honore de Balzac

Forgiveness

“Ideas devour the ages as men are devoured by their passions. When man is cured, human nature will cure itself perhaps.”

— Honore de Balzac

Men

“Small natures require despotism to exercise their sinews, as great souls thirst for equality to give play to their heart.”

— Honore de Balzac

Equality

“When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues.”

— Honore de Balzac

Forgiveness

“True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.”

— Honore de Balzac

Love

“When Religion and Royalty are swept away, the people will attack the great, and after the great, they will fall upon the rich.”

— Honore de Balzac

Great

“There is no such thing as a great talent without great will power.”

— Honore de Balzac

Great

“Death unites as well as separates it silences all paltry feeling.”

— Honore de Balzac

Death