Honoré de Balzac Quotes

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.

Modesty is the conscience of the body.

The majority of husbands remind me of an orangutan trying to play the violin.

Some troubles like a protested note of a solvent debtor bear interest.

We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never either so wretched or so happy as we say we are.

The word 'love,' used in connection with the reproduction of our species, is the most odious blasphemy taught in our times.

We estimate wrongdoing in proportion to the purity of our conscience

There are men who put the weight of a coffin into their deliberations as they bargain for Cashmere shawls for their wives, as they go up the staircase of a theatre, or think of going to the Bouffons, or of setting up a carriage; who are murderers in thought when dear ones, with the irresistable charm of innocence, hold up childish foreheads to be kissed with a ‘Good-night, father!’ Hourly they meet the gaze of eyes they would fain close forever, eyes that still open each morning to the light. . . God alone knows the number of those who are parricides in thought