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Events Are Never Absolute, Their Outcome Depends Entirely Upon The Individual. Misfortune Is A Stepping Stone For A Genius, A Piscina For A Christian, A Treasure For A Man Of Parts, And An Abyss For A Weakling.

-Honore De Balzac

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Events Are Never Absolute,

Honore De Balzac

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Events Are Never Absolute, Their Outcome Depends Entirely Upon The Individual. Misfortune Is A Stepping Stone For A Genius, A Piscina For A Christian, A Treasure For A Man Of Parts, And An Abyss For A Weakling.

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Noble Passions Are Like Vices: The More They Are Satisfied, The Greater They Grow, Mothers And Gamblers Are Insatiable.

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.

With A Woman, Always Make Good Use Of A Secret. She Will Be Proportionally Grateful To You, Like A Scoundrel Who Grants His Respect To An Honest Man He Has Been Unable To Swindle.

Man Is Neither Good Nor Bad; He Is Born With Instincts And Abilities.

Men Who Pay Their Tailors Never Amount To Anything, They Never Even Become Cabinet Ministers.

When Passion Is Not Fed, It Changes To Need. At This Juncture, Marriage Becomes A Fixed Idea In The Mind Of The Bourgeois, Being The Only Means Whereby He Can Win A Woman And Appropriate Her To His Uses.

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.

To Be Happy, A Man Must Love His Wife As She Chooses To Be Loved.

All Poetry Like Every Work Of Art Proceeds From A Swift Vision Of Things.

According To Man's Environment, Society Has Made As Many Different Types Of Men As There Are Varieties In Zoology. The Differences Between A Soldier, A Workman, A Statesman, A Tradesman, A Sailor, A Poet, A Pauper And A Priest, Are More Difficult To Seize, But Quite Considerable As The Differences Between A Wolf, A Lion, An Ass, A Crow, A Sea-calf, A Sheep, And So On.

The Questioning Spirit Is The Rebellious Spirit. A Rebellion Is Always Either A Cloak To Hide A Prince, Or The Swaddling Wrapper Of A New Rule.

To Say To A Rich Man: You Are Poor! Is To Tell The Archbishop Of Granada That His Sermons Are Worthless.

At Fifteen, Neither Beauty Nor Talent Exist: A Woman Is All Promise.

Journalism Is A Giant Catapult Set In Motion By Pigmy Hatreds.

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.

If The Human Heart Sometimes Finds Moments Of Pause As It Ascends The Slopes Of Affection, It Rarely Halts On The Way Down.

The Innocence Of Virgins Is Like Milk Which Turns When Exposed To A Clap Of Thunder, To A Tart Smell, To A Hot Day, To The Merest Nothing.

Memories Beautify Life, But The Capacity To Forget Makes It Bearable.

A Wife Is Property That One Acquires By Contract, She Is Transferable, Because Possession Of Her Requires Title; In Fact, Woman Is, So To Speak, Only Man's Appendage; Consequently, Slice, Cut, Clip Her, You Have All Rights To Her.

When Chaste People Need Body Or Mind To Resort To Action Or Thought, They Find Steel In Their Muscles Or Knowledge In Their Intelligence. Theirs The Diabolic Vigor Or The Black Magic Of Will Power.

Your Modest Savant Smiles As He Says To His Admirers: What Have I Done? Nothing. Man Does Not Invent A Force, He Directs It.

Such Is Life. It Is No Cleaner Than A Kitchen; It Reeks Like A Kitchen; And If You Mean To Cook Your Dinner, You Must Expect To Soil Your Hands; The Real Art Is In Getting Them Clean Again, And Therein Lies The Whole Morality Of Our Epoch.

A Woman Questions The Man Who Loves Exactly As A Judge Questions A Criminal. This Being So, A Flash Of The Eye, A Mere Word, An Inflection Of The Voice Or A Moment's Hesitation Suffice To Expose The Fact, Betrayal Or Crime He Is Attempting To Conceal.

A Year At The Breast Is Quite Enough; Children Who Are Suckled Longer Are Said To Grow Stupid, And I Am All For Popular Sayings.

What Moralists Describe As The Mysteries Of The Human Heart Are Solely The Deceiving Thoughts, The Spontaneous Impulses Of Self-regard. The Sudden Changes In Character, About Which So Much Has Been Said, Are Instinctive Calculations For The Furtherance Of Our Own Pleasures. Seeing Himself Now In His Fine Clothes, His New Gloves And Shoes, Eugène De Rastignac Forgot His Noble Resolve. Youth, When It Swerves Toward Wrong, Dares Not Look In The Mirror Of Conscience; Maturity Has Already Seen Itself There. That Is The Whole Difference Between The Two Phases Of Life.

When Law Becomes Despotic, Morals Are Relaxed, And Vice Versa.

Virtually All Men Of Action Incline To Fatality Just As Most Thinkers Incline To Providence.

Do You Know How A Man Makes His Way Here? By Brilliant Genius Or By Skilful Corruption. You Must Either Cut Your Way Through These Masses Of Men Like A Cannon Ball, Or Steal Among Them Like A Plague.

A Rent In Your Clothes Is A Mishap, A Stain On Them Is A Vice.

Where Poverty Ceases, Avarice Begins.

Vivacity Is The Health Of The Spirit.

No Woman Allows Her Lover To Descend From His Pedestal. Even A God Is Not Forgiven The Slightest Pettiness.

L'amour N'est Pas Seulement Un Sentiment, Il Est Un Art Aussi. Love Is Not Only A Feeling; It Is Also An Art.

The Victory Always Has A Lot Of Parents But The Defeat Is Always An Orphan.

When Tempted To Be Unfaithful, The Intellectual Woman Will Try To Inspire Her Husband With Indifference, The Sentimental Woman With Hatred, And The Passionate Woman With Disgust.

There Are Two Histories : Official History, Lying, And Then Secret History, Where You Find The Real Causes Of Events.

In Intimate Family Life, There Comes A Moment When Children, Willingly Or No, Become The Judges Of Their Parents.

Some Troubles, Like A Protested Note Of A Solvent Debtor, Bear Interest.

In France We Can Cauterize Wounds But We Do Not Yet Know Any Remedy For The Injuries Inflicted By A Bon Mot.

The Causes That Govern The Heart Appear To Be Wholly Alien To The Results Achieved. Are The Forces That Moved A Desperate Criminal The Same That Fill A Martyr With Pride, As Both Mount The Scaffold?

Old Maids, Having Never Bent Their Temper Or Their Lives To Other Lives And Other Tempers, As Woman's Destiny Requires, Have For The Most Part A Mania For Making Everything About Them Bend To Them.

There Is Nothing Original; All Is Reflected Light.

We Have Long Struggles With Ourself, Of Which The Outcome Is One Of Our Actions; They Are, As It Were, The Inner Side Of Human Nature. This Inner Side Is God's; The Outer Side Belongs To Men.

An Ugly Woman, Married To King Henry Viii, Would Have Defied The Axe And Daunted Her Husband's Infidelities.

A Country Is Strong Which Consists Of Wealthy Families, Every Member Of Whom Is Interested In Defending A Common Treasure; It Is Weak When Composed Of Scattered Individuals, To Whom It Matters Little Whether They Obey Seven Or One, A Russian Or A Corsican, So Long As Each Keeps His Own Plot Of Land, Blind In Their Wretched Egotism, To The Fact That The Day Is Coming When This Too Will Be Torn From Them.

Six Weeks With A Fever Is An Eternity.

Marriage Is An Institution Necessary To The Maintenance Of Society But Contrary To The Laws Of Nature.

What Is A Child, Monsieur, But The Image Of Two Beings, The Fruit Of Two Sentiments Spontaneously Blended?

Clothes Are Like A Gloss That Sets Off Everything; Dresser Were Invented More To Enhance Physical Advantages Than To Veil Physical Defects.

A Mother Who Is Really A Mother Is Never Free.

Heaven Should Be Kind To Stupid People, For No One Else Can Be Consistently.

Love Knows Nothing Of Modesty.

Your Women Of Fashion Ceases To Be A Woman. She Is Neither Mother, Nor Wife, Nor Lover. She Is, Medically Speaking, Sex On The Brain.

How Fondly Swindlers Coddle Their Dupes! No Mother Is As Caressing Or Thoughtful Towards Her Adored Child As A Merchant In Hypocrisy Toward His Milch-cow.

It Is The Mark Of A Great Man That He Puts To Flight All Ordinary Calculations. He Is At Once Sublime And Touching, Childlike And Of The Race Of Giants.

The Union Of A Want And A Sentiment.

Though Your Vulgarian Does Not Readily Admit That Feelings Can Change Overnight, Certainly Two Lovers Often Part Far More Abruptly Than They Came Together.

One Of The Most Detestable Habits Of Lilliputian Minds Is To Find Their Own Littleness In Others.

People Exaggerate Both Happiness And Unhappiness; We Are Never So Fortunate Nor So Unfortunate As People Say We Are.

On The Moral Plane, True Friends Enjoy The Same Protection As The Sense Of Smell Confers Upon Dogs. They Scent The Sorrow Of Their Friends, They Divine Its Causes, And They Clasp It To Their Minds And Hearts.

The Election Of A Deputy To The Legislature Offers A Noble And Majestic Spectacle Comparable Only To The Delivery Of A Child. It Involves The Same Efforts, The Same Impurities, The Same Laceration, And The Same Triumph.

Those Who Spend Too Fast Never Grow Rich.

No Navigator Has Yet Traced Lines Of Latitude And Longitude On The Conjugal Sea.

Latitude And Longitude

The Happier A Man, The More Apt He Is To Tremble. In Hearts Exclusively Tender, Anxiety And Jealousy Are In Exact Proportion To Happiness.

The Motto Of Chivalry Is Also The Motto Of Wisdom; To Serve All, But Love Only One.

Whoever Does Not Visit Paris Regularly Will Never Really Be Elegant.

Our Happiness Often Depends Upon Social Hypocrisies To Which We Will Never Stoop.

Art's Greatest Efforts Are Invariably A Timid Counterfeit Of Nature.

Constancy Will Always Be The Genius Of Love, The Indication Of That Strength Which Constitutes The Poet. A Man Should Possess All Women In His Wife, Like Those Squalid Poetasters Of The Seventeenth Century Who Made Fair Irises And Dazzling Chloes Of Their Lowly Manons.

Discouragement Is Of All Ages: In Youth It Is A Presentiment, In Old Age A Remembrance.

Kindness Steers No Easy Course. Attributing It To Character, We Seldom Recognize The Secret Efforts Of A Noble Heart, Whereas We Reward Really Wicked People For The Evil They Refrain From Committing.

Women Are Happy To Possess A Man Whom All Women Covet.

They [twin Beds] Are The Most Stupid, The Most Perfidious, And The Most Dangerous Invention In The World. Shame And A Curse On Who Thought Of Them.

Conscience Is Our Unerring Judge Until We Finally Stifle It.

To Lese-majeste And Contempt Of Court, We Must Add The Crime Of Lese-million, That Fearful Indignity We Visit On The Rich When We Expose The Impotence Of Gold.

There Is A Cure For Temptation. What? Yielding To It.

No Society Is Complete Without Some Victim, A Creature To Pity, To Jeer At, To Scorn Or To Protect.

Give To A Wounded Heart Seclusion; Consolation Nor Reason Ever Effected Anything In Such A Case.

Woman Has This In Common With Angels, That Suffering Beings Belong Especially To Her.

Possibly The Words Materialism And Spirituality Express Two Sides Of One And The Same Fact.

Handsome Widows, After A Twelve-month, Enjoy A Latitude And Longitude Without Limit.

A Woman Must Be A Genius To Create A Good Husband.

Events Are Never Absolute, Their Outcome Depends Entirely Upon The Individual. Misfortune Is A Stepping Stone For A Genius, A Piscina For A Christian, A Treasure For A Man Of Parts, And An Abyss For A Weakling.

Imagination Helps The Realism Of Every Detail, And Only Sees The Beauties Of The Work.

Thanks To The Toleration Preached By The Encyclopedists Of The Eighteenth Century, The Sorcerer Is Exempt From Torture.

Ah! The Soft Starlight Of Virgin Eyes.

How Can We Explain The Perpetuity Of Envy--a Vice Which Yields No Return?

A Knowledge Of Mankind And Of Things That Surround Us Gives Us That Second Education Which Proves Far Move Valuable Than Our First Because It Alone Turns Out A Truly Accomplished Man.

Love Is The Reduction Of The Universe To The Single Being, And The Expansion Of A Single Being, Even To God

When One Has No Particular Talent For Anything, One Takes To The Pen.

Little Minds Find Satisfaction For Their Feelings, Good Or Bad, In Little Things.

It Is Not Hope But Despair That Gives Us The Measure Of Our Ambitions. We May Yield Secretly To Beautiful Poems Of Hope But Grief Looms Start And Stripped Of All Veils.

Conventions Are Often More Cruel Than The Law.

Hope Is A Memory That Desires, The Memory Is A Memory That Has Enjoyed.

Coffee Falls Into The Stomach... Ideas Begin To Move, Things Remembered Arrive At Full Gallop... The Shafts Of Wit Start Up Like Sharp-shooters, Similes Arise, The Paper Is Covered With Ink...

Rich Men Are Resolved To Be Astonished At Nothing. When They See A Masterpiece, They Must Needs At One Glance Recognize Some Flaw To Dispense Them From Admiration, A Vulgar Emotion.

Novelty Is Both Delightful And Deceptive.

However Gross A Man May Be, The Minute He Expresses A Strong And Genuine Affection, Some Inner Secretion Alters His Features, Animates His Gestures, And Colors His Voice. The Stupidest Man Will Often, Under The Stress Of Passion, Achieve Heights Of Eloquence, In Thought If Not In Language, And Seem To Move In Some Luminous Sphere. Goriot's Voice And Gesture Had At This Moment The Power Of Communication That Characterizes The Great Actor. Are Not Our Finer Feelings The Poems Of The Human Will?

At Thirty Years A Woman Asks Her Lover To Give Her Back The Esteem She Has Forfeited For His Sake; She Lives Only For Him, Her Thoughts Are Full Of His Future, He Must Have A Great Career, She Bids Him Make It Glorious; She Can Obey, Entreat, Command, Humble Herself, Or Rise In Pride; Times Without Number She Brings Comfort When A Young Girl Can Only Make Moan.

My Writing Table Has Seen All My Wretchedness, Knows All My Plans, Has Overheard All My Thoughts.

Let Passion Reach A Catastrophe And It Submits Us To An Intoxicating Force Far More Powerful Than The Niggardly Irritation Of Wine Or Of Opium. The Lucidity Our Ideas Then Achieve, And The Delicacy Of Our Overly Exalted Sensations, Produce The Strangest And Most Unexpected Effects.

The Most Virtuous Women Have Within Them Something That Is Never Chaste.

A Sick Man, Surrounded By Those Who Love Him, Nursed By Those Who Wish Earnestly That He Should Live, Will Recover (all Other Things Being Equal), When Another Patient Tended By Hirelings Will Die. Doctors Decline To See Unconscious Magnestism In This Phenomenon; For Them It Is The Result Of Intelligent Nursing, Of Exact Obedience To Their Orders; But Many A Mother Knows The Virtue Of Such Ardent Projections Of Strong, Unceasing Prayer.

True Love Is Eternal, Infinite, And Always Like Itself. It Is Equal And Pure.

In The First Woman We Love, We Love Everything. Growing Older, We Love The Woman Only.

Resignation Is A Daily Suicide.

A Grocer Is Attracted To His Business By A Magnetic Force As Great As The Repulsion Which Renders It Odious To Artists.

Suffering Predisposes The Mind To Devoutness; And Most Young Girls, Prompted By Instinctive Tenderness, Lean Towards Mysticism, The Obscurer Side Of Religion.

Economized Love Is Never Real Love.

I Yield To Your Wishes. It Is The Privilege Of The Women Whom We Love More Than They Love Us To Make The Men Who Love Them Ignore The Ordinary Rules Of Common-sense.

The Great Secret Of Social Alchemy Is To Profit Best From Each Stage In Our Lives, To Gather All Its Leaves In Spring, All Its Flowers In Summer, And All Its Fruits In Autumn.

As Soon As Man Seeks To Penetrate The Secrets Of Nature--in Which Nothing Is Secret And It Is But A Question Of Seeing--he Realizes That The Simple Produces The Supernatural.

The More Illegal A Profit, The More Tenaciously A Man Clings To It.

For Certain People, Misfortune Is A Beacon That Lights Up The Dark And Baser Sides Of Social Life.

All Happiness Depends On Courage And Work.

Gentleness In The Gait Is What Simplicity Is In The Dress. Violent Gestures Or Quick Movements Inspire Involuntary Disrespect.

Several Sorts Of Memory Exist In Us; Body And Mind Each Possesses One Peculiar To Itself. Nostalgia, For Instance, Is A Malady Of The Physical Memory.

Marriageable Girls As Well As Mothers Understand The Terms And Perils Of The Lottery Called Wedlock. That Is Why Women Weep At A Wedding And Men Smile.

A Monster Which Devours Everything - That Is Familiarity.

Hatred Like Love Feeds On The Merest Trifles. Everything Adds To It. Just As The Being We Love Can Do No Wrong, So The One We Hate Can Do No Right.

Clouds Symbolize The Veils That Shroud God.

Vulgar Souls Look Hastily And Superficially At The Sea And Accuse It Of Monotony; Other More Privileged Beings Could Spend A Lifetime Admiring It And Discovering New And Changing Phenomena That Delight Them. So It Is With Love.

Society Is No More Indulgent Than Was The God Of Genesis.

A Murderer Is Less Loathsome To Us Than A Spy. The Murderer May Have Acted On A Sudden Mad Impulse; He May Be Penitent And Amend; But A Spy Is Always A Spy, Night And Day, In Bed, At Table, As He Walks Abroad; His Vileness Pervades Every Moment Of His Life

Admiration Bestowed Upon Any One But Ourselves Is Always Tedious.

Women Are Tenacious, And All Of Them Should Be Tenacious Of Respect; Without Esteem They Cannot Exist; Esteem Is The First Demand That They Make Of Love.

Man Can Start With Aversion And End With Love, But If He Begins With Love And Comes Round To Aversion He Will Never Get Back To Love.

The Response Man Has The Greatest Difficulty In Tolerating Is Pity, Especially When He Warrants It. Hatred Is A Tonic, It Makes One Live, It Inspires Vengeance, But Pity Kills, It Makes Our Weakness Weaker.

The Secret Of A Great Success For Which You Are At A Loss To Account Is A Crime That Has Never Been Found Out, Because It Was Properly Executed.

What Is Art? Nature Concentrated.

A Woman In Love Has Full Intelligence Of Her Power; The More Virtuous She Is, The More Effective Her Coquetry.

All We Are Is In The Soul.

Modesty Is The Conscience Of The Body.

Nothing About Me Surprises Me.

Love Endows Us With A Sort Of Personal Religion; We Respect Another Live Within Ourselves.

Music Is Of Two Kinds: One Petty, Poor, Second-rate, Never Varying, Its Base The Hundred Or So Phrasings Which All Musicians Understand, A Babbling Which Is More Or Less Pleasant, The Life That Most Composers Live.

Intuition, Like The Rays Of The Sun, Acts Only In An Inflexibly Straight Line; It Can Guess Right Only On Condition Of Never Diverting Its Gaze; The Freaks Of Chance Disturb It.

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.

Nature Endows Woman Alternately With A Particular Strength Which Helps Her To Suffer And A Weakness Which Counsels Her To Be Resigned.

Women See Everything Or Nothing According To The Inclination Of Their Hearts. Love Is Their Sole Light.

If Youth Were Not Ignorant And Timid, Civilization Would Be Impossible.

Marriage Must Perforce Fight Against The All-devouring Monster Of Habit.

Love Is A Game In Which One Always Cheats.

People Who Climb From One Rung Of Society To Another Can Never Do Anything Simply.

A Beautiful Book Is A Victory Won In All The Battlefields Of Human Thought.

Beaucoup D'hommes Ont Un Orgueil Qui Les Pousse A' Cacher Leurs Combats Et A' Ne Se Montrer Que Victorieux. Many Men Have Pride That Causes Them To Hide Their Combats And To Only Show Themselves Victorious.

No Hawk Swooping Down Upon His Prey, No Stag Improvising New Detours By Which To Trick The Huntsman, No Dog Scenting Game From Afar Is Comparable In Speed To The Celerity Of A Salesman When He Gets Wind A Deal, To His Skill In Tripping Up Or Forestalling A Rival, And To The Art With Which He Sniffs Out And Discovers A Possible Sale.

We Must Have Books For Recreation And Entertainment, As Well As Books For Instruction And For Business; The Former Are Agreeable, The Latter Useful, And The Human Mind Requires Both. The Cannon Law And The Codes Of Justinian Shall Have Due Honor, And Reign At The Universities; But Homer And Virgil Need Not Therefore Be Banished. We Will Cultivate The Olive And The Vine, But Without Eradicating The Myrtle And The Rose.

One Day, About The Middle Of July 1838, One Of The Carriages, Lately Introduced To Paris Cabstands, And Known As Milords, Was Driving Down The Rue De L'universite, Conveying A Stout Man Of Middle Height In The Uniform Of A Captain Of The National Guard.

In A Husband, There Is Only A Man; In A Married Woman, There Is A Man, A Father, A Mother And A Woman.

It Is Quite Right What They Say: The Three Most Beautiful Sights In The World Are A Ship In Full Sail, A Galloping Horse, And A Woman Dancing.

Love Is The Only Passion Which Suffers Neither Past Nor Future.

The Passion Of Love Is Essentially Selfish, While Motherhood Widens The Circle Of Our Feelings.

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.

A Vocation Is Born To Us All; Happily Most Of Us Meet Promptly Our Twin,--occupation.

To Live In The Presence Of Great Truths And Eternal Laws, To Be Led By Permanent Ideals - That Is What Keeps A Man Patient When The World Ignores Him, And Calm And Unspoiled When The World Praises Him.

It Is As Easy To Dream A Book As It Is Hard To Write One.

Genius Is Answerable Only To Itself; It Is The Sole Judge Of The Means, Since It Alone Knows The End; Thus Genius Must Consider Itself As Above The Law, For It Is The Task Of Genius To Remake The Law; Moreover The Man Who Frees Himself From His Time And Place May Take Everything, Hazard Everything, For Everything Is His By Right.

Are Not Poets Men Who Fulfill Their Hopes Prematurely?

He Who Best Knows The World Will Love It Least.

If Certain Women Walk Straight Into Adultery, There Are Many Others Who Cling To Numerous Hopes, And Commit Sin Only After Wandering Through A Maze Of Sorrows.

Only When One Has Learned To Acknowledge That Wiser Minds Have Made Better Words To Come Out Of Our Mouths May We Truly, Then, Begin To Speak Them.

Inspiration Is The Opportunity Of Genius.

Marriage Is A Fierce Battle Before Which The Two Partners Ask Heaven For Its Blessing, Because Loving Each Other Is The Most Audacious Of Enterprises; The Battle Is Not Slow To Start, And Victory, That Is To Say Freedom, Goes To The Cleverest.

The Man Who Enters His Wife's Dressing Room Is Either A Philosopher Or A Fool.

The Habits Of Life Form The Soul, And The Soul Forms The Physical Presence.

When She Lives At His Palace, The Maiden Niece Of A Bishop Can Pass For A Respectable Woman Because, If She Has A Love Affair, She Is Obliged To Hoodwink Her Uncle.

To Forget Is The Great Secret Of Strong Creative Natures; To Forget Is The Way Nature Herself Who Knows No Past And Who At Every Hour Begins The Mysteries Of Her Untiring Labors Afresh.

There Are No Little Events With The Heart. It Magnifies Everything; It Places In The Same Scales The Fall Of An Empire Of Fourteen Years And The Dropping Of A Woman's Glove, And Almost Always The Glove Weighs More Than The Empire.

Necessity Is Often The Spur To Genius.

Vice Is Perhaps A Desire To Learn Everything.

Desire To Learn

But Woman Brings Disorder Into Society Through Passion.

A Grass Blade Believes That Men Build Palaces For It To Grow In. Grass Wedges Its Way Between The Closest Blocks Of Marble And It Brings Them Down. This Power Of Feeble Life Which Can Creep In Anywhere Is Greater Than That Of The Mighty Behind Their Cannons.

Jealousy, An Eminently Credulous And Suspicious Passion, Allows Fancy The Greatest Possible Play. But It Does Not Bestow Wit, It Banishes All Sense.

Rich Women Need Not Fear Old Age; Their Gold Can Always Create About Them Any Feelings Necessary To Their Happiness.

It Is A Singular Fact That Most Men Of Action Incline To The Theory Of Fatalism, While The Greater Part Of Men Of Thought Believe In Providence.

Clouds Signify The Veil Of The Most High.

It Is Very Difficult To Pass From Pleasure To Work. Accordingly More Poems Have Been Swallowed Up By Sorrow Than Ever Happiness Caused To Blaze Forth In Unparalleled Radiance.

Do You Know What Is The Hardest Thing In Life? To Make A Choice.

My Further Advice On Your Relations To Women Is Based Upon That Other Motto Of Chivalry, "serve All, Love One."

Even Beauty Cannot Always Palliate Eccentricity.

Men Are Perfectly Willing To Abandon A Woman But They Refuse To Be Abandoned By Her.

One Exits With One's Husband -- One Lives With One's Lover.

For Businessmen, The World Is A Bale Of Banknotes In Circulation; For Most Young Men, It Is A Woman; For Some Women, It Is A Man; And For Others It May Be A Salon, A Coterie, A Part Of Town Or A Whole City.

Nature Makes Only Dumb Animals. We Owe The Fools To Society.

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.

Evasion Is Unworthy Of Us, And Is Always The Intimate Of Equivocation.

Finance, Like Time, Devours Its Own Children.

One Of The Glories Of Society Is To Have Created Woman Where Nature Had Made Only A Female; To Have Created A Continuity Of Desire Where Nature Thought Only Of Perpetuating The Species; And, In Fine, To Have Invented Love.

If We Study Nature Attentively In Its Great Evolutions As In Its Minutest Works, We Cannot Fail To Recognize The Possibility Of Enchantment - Giving To That Word Its Exact Significance.

We Exaggerate Misfortune And Happiness Alike. We Are Never As Bad Off Or As Happy As We Say We Are.

Exaggeration Is

Where Some One Else's Welfare Is Concerned, A Young Girl Becomes As Ingenious As A Thief. Guileless Where She Herself Is In Question, And Full Of Foresight For Me,-she Is Like A Heavenly Angel Forgiving The Strange Incomprehensible Sins Of Earth.

In Love, What A Woman Mistakes For Disgust Is Actually Clearsightedness. If She Does Not Admire A Man, She Scorns Him.

Friendships Last When Each Friend Thinks He Has A Slight Superiority Over The Other.

It's Not Enough To Be A Good Person. You Also Have To Show It.

Danger Arouses Interest. Where Death Is Involved, The Vilest Criminal Invariably Stirs A Little Compassion.

Envy Is The Most Stupid Of Vices, For There Is No Single Advantage To Be Gained From It.

Generally Our Confidences Move Downward Rather Than Upward; In Our Secret Affairs, We Employ Our Inferiors Much More Than Our Bettors.

The Impossible Is Justified By The Fact That It Occurred

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