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Holding This Book In Your Hand, Sinking Back In Your Soft Armchair, You Will Say To Yourself: Perhaps It Will Amuse Me. And After You Have Read This Story Of Great Misfortunes, You Will No Doubt Dine Well, Blaming The Author For Your Own Insensitivity, Accusing Him Of Wild Exaggeration And Flights Of Fancy. But Rest Assured: This Tragedy Is Not A Fiction. All Is True.

-Honore De Balzac

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Holding This Book In

Honore De Balzac

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Holding This Book In Your Hand, Sinking Back In Your Soft Armchair, You Will Say To Yourself: Perhaps It Will Amuse Me. And After You Have Read This Story Of Great Misfortunes, You Will No Doubt Dine Well, Blaming The Author For Your Own Insensitivity, Accusing Him Of Wild Exaggeration And Flights Of Fancy. But Rest Assured: This Tragedy Is Not A Fiction. All Is True.

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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.

Nothing Is As Heady As The Wine Of Misfortune.

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

We Do Not Wish Success Yet We Obtain It. Always We Find What We Are Not Looking For. These Words Are Too True Not To Become A Proverb Some Day.

Excess Of Joy Is Harder To Bear Than Any Amount Of Sorrow.

We Flew Back Home Like Swallows. 'is It Happiness That Makes Us So Light?' Agathe Asked.

Virginity, Like All Monstrosities, Possesses Special Riches And Its Own Absorbing Grandeur. Among The Chaste, Life Forces Are Economized And Thus Gain In Resistance And Durability.

A Great Love Is A Credit Opened In Favor Of A Power So Consuming That The Moment Of Bankruptcy Must Inevitably Occur.

Love Is The Only Way On Which Even The Dim-witted Reaches Certain Heights.

Conviction Brings A Silent, Indefinable Beauty Into Faces Made Of The Commonest Human Clay; The Devout Worshiper At Any Shrine Reflects Something Of Its Golden Glow, Even As The Glory Of A Noble Love Shines Like A Sort Of Light From A Woman's Face.

God Is The Author, Men Are Only The Players. These Grand Pieces Which Are Played Upon Earth Have Been Composed In Heaven.

Death Is As Unexpected In His Caprice As A Courtesan In Her Disdain; But Death Is Truer – Death Has Never Forsaken Any Man

Glory Is The Sunshine Of The Dead

There Are Words Which Cut Like Steel.

We Love Because We Love.

The Weakest Being On Earth Can Accomplish Feats Of Strength. The Frailest Urchin Will Ring Every Doorbell On The Street In Arctic Weather Or Hoist Himself Aloft To Inscribe His Name On A Virgin Monument.

Virtue, Perhaps, Is Nothing More Than Politeness Of Soul.

A Lover Always Thinks Of His Mistress First And Himself Second; With A Husband It Runs The Other Way.

The More One Judges, The Less One Loves.

We Cannot Confront Solitude Without Moral Resources.

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.

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

Love Which Economizes Is Never True Love.

For Young People Always Begin By Loving Exaggeration, That Infirmity Of Noble Minds.

From The Manner In Which A Woman Draws Her Thread At Every Stitch Of Her Needlework, Any Other Woman Can Surmise Her Thoughts.

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.

Vice Is Perhaps A Desire To Learn Everything.

Desire To Learn

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.

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.

Women? In Order To Realize How Far These Charming Creatures We Idealize Can Carry Their Cruelty, We Must See Them Among Themselves!

Despotism Accomplishes Great Things Illegally; Liberty Doesn't Even Go To The Trouble Of Accomplishing Small Things Legally.

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

Nothing Is Irredeemably Ugly But Sin.

I Can No Longer Think Of Anything But You. In Spite Of Myself, My Imagination Carries Me To You. I Grasp You, I Kiss You, I Caress You, A Thousand Of The Most Amorous Caresses Take Possession Of Me.

Thinking Of You

A Husband And Wife Who Have Separate Bedrooms Have Either Drifted Apart Or Found Happiness.

Found Happiness

What A Thing Of Fantasy A Woman May Become After Dusk.

Passion Is Universal Humanity. Without It Religion, History, Romance And Art Would Be Useless.

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

Today Nobility Is Gone: There Is Only A Peerage.

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.

Courtesy Is Only A Thin Veneer On The General Selfishness.

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

He Hesitated Till The Last Moment, But Finally Dropped Them In The Box, Saying, "i Shall Win!"--the Cry Of A Gambler, The Cry Of The Great General, The Compulsive Cry That Has Ruined More Men Than It Has Ever Saved.

For Passion, Be It Observed, Brings Insight With It; It Can Give A Sort Of Intelligence To Simpletons, Fools, And Idiots, Especially During Youth.

No Man Should Marry Until He Has Studied Anatomy And Dissected At Least One Woman.

This Coffee Falls Into Your Stomach, And Straightway There Is A General Commotion. Ideas Begin To Move Like The Battalions Of The Grand Army Of The Battlefield, And The Battle Takes Place. Things Remembered Arrive At Full Gallop, Ensuing To The Wind. The Light Cavalry Of Comparisons Deliver A Magnificent Deploying Charge, The Artillery Of Logic Hurry Up With Their Train And Ammunition, The Shafts Of With Start Up Like Sharpshooters. Similes Arise, The Paper Is Covered With Ink; For The Struggle Commences And Is Concluded With Torrents Of Black Water, Just As A Battle With Powder.

Sects Differ More In Name Than Tenets.

Hatred Is The Vice Of Narrow Souls; They Feed It With All Their Littleness, And Make It The Pretext Of Base Tyrannies.

Science Is The Language Of The Temporal World; Love Is That Of The Spiritual World. Man, Indeed, Describes More Than He Explains; While The Angelic Spirit Sees And Understands. Science Saddens Man; Love Enraptures The Angel; Science Is Still Seeking; Love Has Found.

In The Medical Profession A Horse And Carriage Are More Necessary Than Any Scientific Knowledge.

The Woman Who Is About To Deceive Her Husband Always Carefully Thinks Out How She Is Going To Act, But She Is Never Logical.

Towns Find It As Hard As Houses Of Business To Rise Again From Ruin.

Who Shall Ever Tell How Much An Unmerited Disfavor Crushes A Shy Person? Who Can Ever Depict The Misfortunes Of Timidity?

Virtue Is Always Too Much Of A Piece And Too Ignorant Of Those Shades Of Feeling And Of Temperament That Enable Us To Squint When We Are Placed In A False Position.

Un Homme N'a Jamais Pu E Lever Sa Ma|"tresse Jusqu'a' Lui; Mais Une Femme Place Toujours Son Amant Aussi Haut Qu'elle. A Man Can Never Elevate His Mistress To His Rank, But A Woman Can Always Place Her Lover As High As She.

The Greater A Man's Talents, The More Marked His Idiosyncracies. Yet In The Provinces Originality Is Considered Perilously Close To Lunacy.

Show Me The Woman, However Loyal, Who Does Not Seek To Rouse Desire.

The Secret Of The Nobility And Beauty Of Great Ladies Lies In The Art With Which They Can Shed Their Veils. In Such Situations, They Become Like Ancient Statues. If They Kept The Merest Scarf On, They Would Be Lewd. Your Bourgeois Woman Will Always Try To Cover Her Nakedness.

To Man, Faith; To Woman, Doubt. She Bears The Heavier Burden. Does Not Woman Invariably Suffer For Two?

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.

What Is Art? Nature Concentrated.

The Greatest Tyranny Is To Love I Where We Are Not Loved Again.

The Man Whom Fate Employs To Awaken Love In The Heart Of A Young Girl Is Often Unaware Of His Work And Therefore Leaves It Uncompleted.

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.

Creole Women Take After Europe In Their Intelligence, After The Tropics In The Illogical Violence Of Their Passions, And After The Indies In The Apathetic Indolence With Which They Commit Or Suffer Good And Evil.

I Am A Galley Slave To Pen And Ink.

Is There Any Instinct More Deeply Implanted In The Heart Of Man Than The Pride Of Protection, A Protection Which Is Constantly Exerted For A Fragile And Defenceless Creature?

All Happiness Depends On Courage And Work.

Un Mari, Comme Un Gouvernement, Ne Doit Jamais Avouer De Faute. A Husband, Like A Government, Never Needs To Admit A Fault.

What Patient Can Trust The Knowledge Of A Physician Without Reputation Or Furniture, In A Period When Publicity Is All-powerful And When The Government Gilds The Lamp Posts On The Place De La Concorde In Order To Dazzle The Poor?

A Sacrament By Virtue Of Which Each Imparts Nothing But Vexations To The Other.

She Who Is Really A Wife, One In Heart, Flesh, And Bone, Must Follow Wherever He Leads, In Whom Her Life, Her Strength, Her Pride, And Happiness Are Centered.

Women Are As They Are; They Necessarily Have The Defects Of Their Virtues.

Nothing Is So Discreet As A Young Face, For Nothing Is Less Mobile; It Has The Serenity, The Surface Smoothness, And The Freshnessof A Lake. There Is No Character In Women's Faces Before The Age Of Thirty.

Ah! The Soft Starlight Of Virgin Eyes.

The Duration Of A Couple's Passion Is In Proportion To The Woman's Original Resistance Or To The Obstacles That Social Hazards Have Placed In The Way Of Her Happiness.

Doubt Follows White-winged Hope With Trembling Steps.

One Can Imagine The Look The Two Lovers Exchanged; It Was Like A Flame, For Virtuous Lovers Have Not A Shred Of Hypocrisy.

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.

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.

Old Men Are Prone To Invest The Futures Of Young Men With Their Own Past Sorrows.

La Femme Marie E Est Un Esclave Qu'il Faut Savoir Mettre Sur Un Tro" N E. A Married Woman Is A Slave Whom One Must Put On A Throne.

The Secret Of Great Fortunes Without Apparent Cause Is A Crime Forgotten, For It Was Properly Done.

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

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.

A Man May And Ought To Pride Himself More On His Will Than On His Talent.

Above All Do Not Ask That Justice Be Just: It Is Just, Because It Is Justice. The Idea Of A Just Justice Could Have Originated Only In The Brain Of An Anarchist.

The Smallest Flower Is A Thought, A Life Answering To Some Feature Of The Great Whole, Of Whom They Have A Persistent Intuition.

Modern Reformers Offer Nebulous Theories Or Write Philanthropic Novels. But Your Thief Acts! He Is As Clear As A Fact And As Logical As A Punch On The Nose! And What A Style He Has!

Political Liberty, The Peace Of A Nation, And Science Itself Are Gifts For Which Fate Demands A Heavy Tax In Blood!

Let Nothing Dupe You! Such Is The Horrible Maxim That Acts As A Solvent Upon Every Noble Feeling Man Experiences.

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.

Hatred Like Love Feeds On The Merest Trifles.

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.

One Admirable Trait In Women Is Their Lack Of Illusions About Themselves. They Never Reason About Their Most Blameworthy Actions; Their Feelings Carry Them Away. Even Their Dissimulation Comes Naturally To Them, And In Them Crime Is Free Of All Baseness. Most Of The Time They Simply Do Not Know How It Happened.

A Great Writer Is Nothing Less Than A Martyr Who Does Not Die.

Manners Are The Hypocrisy Of A Nation.

A Girl's Coquetry Is Of The Simplest, She Thinks That All Is Said When The Veil Is Laid Aside; A Woman's Coquetry Is Endless, She Shrouds Herself In Veil After Veil, She Satisfies Every Demand Of Man's Vanity, The Novice Responds But To One.

When Will Conventional Good Manners Become Attractive? When Will Ladies Of Fashion Exhibit Their Shoulders A Little Less And Their Affability And Wit A Little More?

Let Us Leave The Cure Of Public Evils To Those Quacks, The Statesmen.

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

How Did You Get Back?' Asked Vautrin. 'i Walked,' Replied Eugene. 'i Wouldn't Like Half-pleasures, Myself,' Observed The Tempter. 'i'd Want To Go There In My Own Carriage, Have My Own Box, And Come Back In Comfort. All Or Nothing, That's My Motto.' 'and A Very Good One,' Said Madame Vauquer.

The Country Is Provincial; It Becomes Ridiculous When It Tries To Ape Paris.

Lovers Have A Way Of Using This Word "nothing" Which Implies Exactly The Opposite.

Good Befalls Us While We Sleep, Sometimes.

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

When We Drink Coffee, Ideas March In Like The Army

Woman Is A Delightful Instrument Of Pleasure, But It Is Necessary To Know Its Trembling Strings, To Study The Position Of Them, The Timid Keyboard, The Fingering So Changeful And Capricious Which Befits It.

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

Poetry Is Only Born After Painful Journeys Into The Vast Regions Of Thought.

Envy Lurks At The Bottom Of The Human Heart Like A Viper In Its Hole.

Woman Is Stronger By Virtue Of Her Feelings Than Man By Virtue Of His Power.

No Woman Dares To Refuse Love Without A Motive, For Nothing Is More Natural Than To Yield To Love.

Prostitution And Robbery Are Two Living Protests, Respectively Female And Male, Made By The Natural State Against The Social State.

All We Are Is In The Soul.

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.

Though The Human Heart May Have To Pause For Rest When Climbing The Heights Of Affection It Rarely Stops On The Slippery Slope Of Hatred.

Everything Is Bilateral In The Domain Of Thought. Ideas Are Binary. Janus Is The Myth Of Criticism And The Symbol Of Genius. Only God Is Triangular!

Thought Is A Key To All Treasures; The Miser's Gains Are Ours Without His Cares. Thus I Have Soared Above This World, Where My Enjoyments Have Been Intellectual Joys.

Pity Is Woman's Sweetest Charm.

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.

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.

Pure Herring Oil Is The Port Wine Of English Cats

To Have Fame Follow Us Is Well, But It Is Not A Desirable Avant-courier.

Mud, Raised By Hurricanes, Wells Up In The Noblest And Purest Of Hearts.

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

What Saves The Virtue Of Many A Woman Is That Protecting God, The Impossible.

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

Squeeze Marriage As Much As You Like, You Will Never Extract Anything From It But Fun For Bachelors And Boredom For Husbands.

Materialism And Spirituality Are Two Pretty Racquets With Which Charlatans In Cap And Gown Make The Same Ball Fly.

Marriage Must Incessantly Contend With A Monster That Devours Everything: Familiarity.

Happiness Lends Poetic Charms To Woman, And Dress Adorns Her Like A Delicate Tinge Of Rouge.

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.

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.

How Sternly We Reproach Virtue For Its Failings, How Indulgent We Are To The Better Qualities Of Vice!

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

Ah! How Much A Mother Learns From Her Child! The Constant Protection Of A Helpless Being Forces Us To So Strict An Alliance With Virtue, That A Woman Never Shows To Full Advantage Except As A Mother. Then Alone Can Her Character Expand In The Fulfillment Of All Life's Duties And The Enjoyment Of All Its Pleasures.

The Woman You Buy Takes A Great Deal Of Money. The Woman Who Gives Herself To You Takes All Your Money.

Thought Is The Only Treasure That God Sets Outside All Power And Keeps To Serve As A Secret Link Among The Unhappy.

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.

What Makes Friendship Indissolute And What Doubles Its Charms Is A Feeling We Find Lacking In Love: I Mean Certitude.

It Is Easy To Sit Up And Take Notice, What Is Difficult Is Getting Up And Taking Action.

Love Knows Nothing Of Modesty.

God Reveals Himself, Unfailingly, To The Solitary, Thoughtful Seeker

A Lui La Foi, A' Elle Le Doute, A' Elle Le Fardeau Le Plus Lourd: La Femme Ne Souffre-t-elle Pas Toujours Pour Deux? For Him, Faith; For Her, Doubt And For Her Theheavier Load: Does Not The Woman Always Suffer For Both?

A Man's Own Vanity Is A Swindler That Never Lacks For A Dupe.

Vocations Which We Wanted To Pursue, But Didn't, Bleed, Like Colors, On The Whole Of Our Existence.

The More You Judge, The Less You Love.

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

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

It Is Easier For A Woman To Be A Good Wife Than A Good Mother. A Widow Has Two Duties With Contrary Obligations: She Is A Mother And She Must Exercise Paternal Authority. Few Woman Are Strong Enough To Understand And To Play This Role.

The Virtues We Acquire, Which Develop Slowly Within Us, Are The Invisible Links That Bind Each One Of Our Existences To The Others - Existences Which The Spirit Alone Remembers, For Matter Has No Memory For Spiritual Things.

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

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

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

Like Hunger, Physical Love Is A Necessity. But Man's Appetite For Amour Is Never So Regular Or So Sustained As His Appetite For The Delights Of The Table.

Inspiration Is The Opportunity Of Genius.

Once She Has Committed Sin, There Is Nothing Left For The Protestant Woman, Whereas The Catholic Church, Hope Of Forgiveness Makes A Woman Sublime.

Nowhere But In France Are People So Strictly Observant Of Great Matters And So Disdainfully Indulgent About Small Ones.

Our Worst Misfortunes Never Happen, And Most Miseries Lie In Anticipation.

A Flow Of Words Is A Sure Sign Of Duplicity.

A Man Is A Poor Creature Compared To A Woman.

You're A Fine Fastidious Young Man, As Proud As A Lion, As Gentle As A Girl. You'd Make A Good Catch For The Devil.

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

Neither The Passions Not Justice Nor Politics Nor The Great Social Forces Ever Consider The Victims They Strike.

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

Exaggeration Is

If The Artist Does Not Fling Himself, Without Reflecting, Into His Work, As Curtis Flung Himself Into The Yawning Gulf, As The Soldier Flings Himself Into The Enemy's Trenches, And If, Once In This Crater, He Does Not Work Like A Miner On Whom The Walls Of His Gallery Have Fallen In; If He Contemplates Difficulties Instead Of Overcoming Them One By One ... He Is Simply Looking On At The Suicide Of His Own Talent.

Forgetting Is The Great Secret Of Strong And Creative Lives.

Authentic Love Always Assumes The Mystery Of Modesty, Even In Its Expression, Because Actions Speak Louder Than Words. Unlike A Feigned Love, It Feels No Need To Set A Conflagration.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Man Is No Match For Woman Where Mischief Reigns.

When One Of Those Skirt-bearing Animals Has Set Herself Up Above All By Permitting Herself To Be Deified, No Power On Earth Can Be As Proud As She.

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.

I Am Not Deep, But I Am Very Wide.

But Does Not Happiness Come From The Soul Within?

Clouds Signify The Veil Of The Most High.

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

Stupidity Assumes Two Forms, It Speaks Or Is Silent. Mute Stupidity Is Bearable.

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.

Noble Hearts Are Neither Jealous Nor Afraid Because Jealousy Spells Doubt And Fear Spells Pettiness.

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.

Love, According To Our Contemporary Poets, Is A Privilege Which Two Beings Confer Upon One Another, Whereby They May Mutually Cause One Another Much Sorrow Over Absolutely Nothing.

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

Hope Is A Light Diet, But Very Stimulating.

At Fifteen, Beauty And Talent Do Not Exist; There Can Only Be Promise Of The Coming Woman.

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

Woman Is Closer To Angels Than Man Because She Knows How To Mingle An Infinite Tenderness With The Most Absolute Compassion.

Our Most Bitter Enemies Are Our Own Kith And Kin. Kings Have No Brothers, No Sons, No Mother!

The Best Painters, As They Progress In Reputation And Towards Perfection, Are Found To Dispense More And More With The Technique Of The Art, For Simpler Methods. Simplicity Never Fails To Charm.

Woman Is A Most Charming Creature, Who Changes Her Heart As Easily As She Does Her Gloves.

It Is Beyond A Doubt That During The Sixteenth Century, And The Years Immediately Preceding And Following It, Poisoning Had Been Brought To A Pitch Of Perfection Which Remains Unknown To Modern Chemistry, But Which Is Indisputably Proved By History. Italy, The Cradle Of Modern Science, Was At That Time, The Inventor And Mistress Of These Secrets, Many Of Which Are Lost.

A Penniless Man Who Has No Ties To Bind Him Is Master Of Himself At Any Rate, But A Luckless Wretch Who Is In Love No Longer Belongs To Himself, And May Not Take His Own Life. Love Makes Us Almost Sacred In Our Own Eyes; It Is The Life Of Another That We Revere Within Us; Then And So Begins For Us The Cruelest Trouble Of All.

Equality May Be The Law, But No Human Power Can Install It.

A Woman Filled With Faith In The One She Loves Is The Creation Of A Novelist's Imagination.

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

It Would Be Curious To Know What Leads A Man To Become A Stationer Rather Than A Baker, When He Is No Longer Compelled, As Among The Egyptians, To Succeed To His Father's Craft.

In A World Of Hunchbacks, A Fine Figure Becomes A Monstrosity.

The Events Of Human Life, Whether Public Or Private, Are So Intimately Linked To Architecture That Most Observers Can Reconstruct Nations Or Individuals In All The Truth Of Their Habits From The Remains Of Their Monuments Or From Their Domestic Relics.

A Woman, Even A Prude, Is Not Long At A Loss, However Dire Her Plight. She Would Seen Always To Have In Hand The Fig Leaf Our Mother Eve Bequeathed To Her.

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

Latitude And Longitude

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.

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