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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.

-Honore De Balzac

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If We Study Nature

Honore De Balzac

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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.

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For Pain Is Perhaps But A Violent Pleasure? Who Could Determine The Point Where Pleasure Becomes Pain, Where Pain Is Still A Pleasure? Is Not The Utmost Brightness Of The Ideal World Soothing To Us, While The Lightest Shadows Of The Physical World Annoy?

All Human Beings Go Through A Previous Life... Who Knows How Many Fleshly Forms The Heir Of Heaven Occupies Before He Can Be Brought To Understand The Value Of That Silence And Solitude Of Spiritual Worlds?

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.

A Woman In The Depths Of Despair Proves So Persuasive That She Wrenches The Forgiveness Lurking Deep In The Heart Of Her Lover. This Is All The More True When That Woman Is Young, Pretty, And So Decollete As To Emerge From The Neck Of Her Gown In The Costume Of Eve.

Poles Offer A Mobility Like That Of The Wind That Blows Over The Immense Plains And Marches Of Poland. Show A Pole A Precipice, And He Will Leap Headlong Over It.

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

Now Literary Success Can Only Be Won In Solitude By Persevering Labor.

Yes, I Can Understand That A Man Might Go To A Gambling Table When He Sees That All That Lies Between Him And Death Is His Last Crown.

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.

Love Which Economizes Is Never True Love.

Man Is No Match For Woman Where Mischief Reigns.

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.

Nothing So Fortifies A Friendship As A Belief On The Part Of One Friend That He Is Superior To The Other.

Fools Gain Greater Advantages Through Their Weakness Than Intelligent Men Through Their Strength. We Watch A Great Man Struggling Against Fate And We Do Not Lift A Finger To Help Him. But We Patronize A Grocer Who Is Headed For Bankruptcy.

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

A Man Who Stops At Nothing Short Of The Law Is Very Clever Indeed!

The Day Will Dawn When Europe Will Believe Only In The Man Who Tramples Her Underfoot.

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

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.

Love Has Its Own Instinct, Finding The Way To The Heart, As The Feeblest Insect Finds The Way To Its Flower, With A Will Which Nothing Can Dismay Nor Turn Aside.

Remorse Is Impotence, Impotence Which Sins Again. Repentance Alone Is Powerful; It Ends All.

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.

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.

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

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.

Temperament Is The Thermometer Of Character.

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

The Press Is Like A Woman: Sublime When It Lies, It Will Not Let Go Until It Has Forced You To Believe It. The Public, Like A Foolish Husband, Always Succumbs.

Reading Brings Us Unknown Friends

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.

Clouds Signify The Veil Of The Most High.

Poets And Men Of Action Differ: The Former Yield To Their Feelings In Order To Reproduce Them In Lively Colors, And Therefore Judge Only Ex Post Facto; The Latter Feel And Judge At One And The Same Time.

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.

Most Women Wish To Feel That Their Spirit Has Been Violated. Do They Not, Indeed, Flatter Themselves On Never Yielding Save To Force?

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.

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.

Gratitude Is A Fool's Word; We Find It In The Dictionary, But It Is Not In The Heart Of Man.

A Good Husband Is Never The First To Go To Sleep At Night Or The Last To Awake In The Morning.

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.

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.

In Smart Society Men Are Jealous Of One Another After The Fashion Of Women.

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 Man Is A Poor Creature Compared To A Woman.

Those Who Spend Too Fast Never Grow Rich.

A Careful Observation Of Nature Will Disclose Pleasantries Of Superb Irony. She Has For Instance Placed Toads Close To Flowers.

For The Person Who Loves God, Worship Is The Daily Bread Of Patience.

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.

Passion Is Born Deaf And Dumb.

Modern Society Includes Three Types Of Men Who Can Never Think Very Highly Of The World--the Priest, The Physician, And The Attorney-at-law. They All Wear Black, Too, For Are They Not In Mourning For Every Virtue And Every Illusion?

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.

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.

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

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

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.

And He, Like Many Jaded People, Had Few Pleasures Left In Life Save Good Food And Drink.

If We Could But Paint With The Hand What We See With The Eye.

When A Woman Wants To Betray Her Husband, Her Actions Are Almost Invariably Studied But They Are Never Reasoned.

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.

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.

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!

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

When A Woman Starts Talking About Her Duty, Her Regard For Appearances, And Her Respect For Religion, She Raises So Many Bulwarks Which She Delights To See Captured By Storm.

In Family Life People Almost Always Adjust Themselves To Misfortune. They Make A Bed Of It And Hope Makes Them Accept That Bed, However Hard It Is.

Love May Be The Fairest Gem Which Society Has Filched From Nature; But What Is Motherhood Save Nature In Her Most Gladsome Mood? A Smile Has Dried My Tears.

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.

A Monster Which Devours Everything - That Is Familiarity.

It Is No Sin To Be Tempted; The Wickedness Lies In Being Overcome.

A Woman's Greatest Charm Consists In A Constant Appeal To A Man's Generosity By A Gracious Declaration Of Helplessness Which Fills Him With Pride And Awakens The Most Magnificent Feelings In His Heart.

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.

Ah! What Pleasure It Must Be To A Woman To Suffer For The One She Loves!

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.

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.

Virtue Is Not A Thing You Can Have By Halves; It Is Or It Is Not.

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

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?

The Duration Of Passion Is Proportionate With The Original Resistance Of The Woman.

All Genuinely Noble Women Prefer Truth To Falsehood. As The Russians With Their Czar, They Are Unwilling To See Their Idol Degraded; They Want To Be Proud Of The Domination They Accept.

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

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.

People Who Are In Love Suspect Nothing Or Everything.

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

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

But Reason Always Cuts A Poor Figure Beside Sentiment; The One Being Essentially Restricted, Like Everything That Is Positive, While The Other Is Infinite.

The Key To All Sciences Is Unquestionably The Question Mark. To The Word How? We Owe Most Of Our Greatest Discoveries. Wisdom In Life May Perhaps Consist In Asking Ourselves On All Occasions: Why?

Nothing Is As Heady As The Wine Of Misfortune.

The Most Real Of All Splendors Are Not In Outward Things, They Are Within Us.

The World Will Avenge Itself Upon All Happiness In Which It Has No Share.

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.

Law Is A Silvery Web That Lets The Big Flies Pass And Catches All The Small Ones.

Innocence Alone Dares Commit Certain Acts Of Audacity. Virtue, When Tutored, Is As Calculating As Vice.

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

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

Nothing Is A Greater Impediment To Being On Good Terms With Others Than Being Ill At Ease With Yourself.

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

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.

A Courage Which Looks Easy & Yet Is Rare; The Courage Of A Teacher Repeating Day After Day The Same Lessons - The Least Rewarded Of All Forms Of Courage.

Our Heart Is A Treasury; If You Pour Out All Its Wealth At Once, You Are Bankrupt.

For The Journalist, Anything Probable Is Gospel Truth.

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

Love Is A Religion, And Its Rituals Cost More Than Those Of Other Religions. It Goes By Quickly And, Like A Street Urchin, It Likes To Mark Its Passage By A Trail Of Devastation.

Women, When They Have Made A Sheep Of A Man, Always Tell Him That He Is A Lion With A Will Of Iron.

Women Themselves Are So Happy, And So Beautiful, When They're Strong, That They Naturally Choose Powerful Men, Even If That Power's So Enermous There's A Real Risk It Could Shatter Them.

There Are No Principles; There Are Only Events. There Is No Good And Bad, There Are Only Circumstances.

Vice Is Perhaps A Desire To Learn Everything.

Desire To Learn

Nature Knows Nothing But Solid Bodies; Your Science Deals Only With Combinations Of Surfaces. And So Nature Constantly Gives The Lie To All Your Laws; Can You Name One To Which No Fact Makes An Exception?

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

The Future Of A Nation Lies In The Hands Of Mothers.

Like Most Young People, These Two Attributed To The World Their Own Intelligence And Virtues. Youth Who Knows No Failure Has No Mercy On The Faults Of Other People; But It Has Also A Sublime Faith In Them.

To Speak Of Love Is To Make Love.

Everything Becomes Agitated. Ideas Quick-march Into Motion Like Battalions Of A Grand Army To Its Legendary Fighting Ground, And The Battle Rages. Memories Charge In, Bright Flags On High; The Cavalry Of Metaphor Deploys With A Magnificent Gallop; The Artillery Of Logic Rushes Up With Clattering Wagons And Cartridges; On Imagination's Orders, Sharpshooters Sight And Fire; Forms And Shapes And Characters Rear Up; The Paper Is Spread With Ink - For The Nightly Labor Begins And Ends With Torrents Of This Black Water, As A Battle Opens And Concludes With Black Powder.

Ideas Devour The Ages As Men Are Devoured By Their Passions. When Man Is Cured, Human Nature Will Cure Itself Perhaps.

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

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

Power Is Not Revealed By Striking Hard Or Often, But By Striking True.

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

In Paris, When Certain People See You Ready To Set Your Foot In The Stirrup, Some Pull Your Coat-tails, Others Loosen The Buckle Of The Strap That You May Fall And Crack Your Skull; One Wrenches Off Your Horse's Shoes, Another Steals Your Whip, And The Least Treacherous Of Them All Is The Man Whom You See Coming To Fire His Pistol At You Point Blank.

France Is A Country That Loves To Change Their Government If It Is Always The Same.

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

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!

Whereas Scoundrels Become Reconciled After Knifing One Another, Lovers Break Up Irrevocably Over A Mere Glance Or Word.

Glory And Fame Mean Twelve Thousand Francs' Worth Of Paid Articles In The Newspapers And Five Thousand Crowns' Worth Of Dinners.

Inspiration Is The Opportunity Of Genius.

When You Doubt Your Power, You Give Power To Your Doubt.

By Dint Of Making Sacrifices, A Man Grows Interested In The Person Who Exacts Them. Great Ladies, Like Courtesans, Know This Truth By Instinct.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

It Is As Absurd To Say That A Man Can't Love One Woman All The Time As It Is To Say That A Violinist Needs Several Violins To Play The Same Piece Of Music.

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

Girls Are Apt To Imagine Noble And Enchanting And Totally Imaginary Figures In Their Own Minds; They Have Fanciful Extravagant Ideas About Men, And Sentiment, And Life; And Then They Innocently Endow Somebody Or Other With All The Perfections For Their Daydreams, And Put Their Trust In Him.

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

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

Man Judges Of Nature In Relation To Itself; The Angelic Spirit Judges Of It In Relation To Heaven. In Short, To The Spirits Everything Speaks.

Love Is Perhaps No More Than Gratitude For Pleasure.

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.

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

There Are Some Women Whose Pregnancy Would Make Some Sly Bachelor Smile.

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.

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

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

Charity Is Not One Of The Virtues Practiced On The Stock Market. The Heart Of A Bank Is But One Of Many Viscera.

As A Rule, Only The Poor Are Generous. Rich People Can Always Find Excellent Reasons For Not Handing Over Twenty Thousand Francs To A Relative.

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

Want Him To Be More Of A Man? Try Being More Of A Woman!

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

Study Lends A Kind Of Enchantment To All Our Surroundings.

Power Does Not Consist In Striking With Force Or With Frequency, But In Striking True.

Some Day You Will Find Out That There Is Far More Happiness In Another's Happiness Than In Your Own.

Love Is Like Some Fresh Spring, First A Stream And Then A River, Changing Its Aspect And Its Nature As It Flows To Plunge Itself In Some Boundless Ocean, Where Restricted Natures Only Find Monotony, But Where Great Souls Are Engulfed In Endless Contemplation.

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

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

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

Love May Be Or It May Not, But Where It Is, It Ought To Reveal Itself In Its Immensity.

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

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

First Love Is A Kind Of Vaccination Which Saves A Man From Catching The Complaint The Second Time.

Chance, My Dear, Is The Sovereign Deity In Child-bearing.

Virtue In Women Is Perhaps A Question Of Temperament.

Few Men Are Raised In Our Estimation By Being Too Closely Examined.

But Also Remember: If You Have Any Genuine Feelings, Hide Them Like Treasure; Never Let Anyone So Much As Suspect Them, Or You're Lost. Instead Of Being The Executioner, You'll Be The Victim. And If You Ever Fall In Love, Keep That Absolutely Secret! Never Breathe A Word Until You're Completely Sure Of The Person To Whom You Open Your Heart. And To Protect That Love, Even Before You Feel It, Learn To Despise The World.

Falling In Love

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

Our Souls Possess The Unknown Power Of Extending As Well As Contracting Space.

Lofty Souls Are Always Inclined To Make A Virtue Of Misfortune.

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

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.

God Is The Poet; Men Are But The Actors. The Great Dramas Of Earth Were Written In Heaven.

If You Are To Judge A Man, You Must Know His Secret Thoughts, Sorrows, And Feelings; To Know Merely The Outward Events Of A Man's Life Would Only Serve To Make A Chronological Table-a Fool's Notion Of History.

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

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.

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.

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

Events Are Never Absolute, Their Outcome Depends Entirely Upon The Individual.

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.

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

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.

The First Thing Necessary To Win The Heart Of A Woman Is Opportunity.

Loyalty In Time Of Need Is Possibly One Of The Noblest Of Victories A Courtier Can Win Over Himself.

Reproach Is Usually Honest, Which Is More Than Can Be Said Of Praise.

No Frozen-hearted Woman Ever I Laid Eyes On But Has Made Duty Her Religion.

Conventions Are Often More Cruel Than The Law.

Great Minds Always Tend To See Virtue In Misfortune.

The Man As He Converses Is The Lover; Silent, He Is The Husband.

Virtue, My Pet, Is An Abstract Idea, Varying In Its Manifestations With The Surroundings. Virtue In Provence, In Constantinople, In London, And In Paris Bears Very Different Fruit, But Is None The Less Virtue.

Conscience Is Our Unerring Judge Until We Finally Stifle It.

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.

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

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

With Every One, The Expectation Of A Misfortune Constitutes A Dreadful, Punishment. Suffering Then Assumes The Proportions Of The Unknown, Which Is The Soul's Infinite.

A Mother Who Is Really A Mother Is Never Free.

Death Unites As Well As Separates; It Silences All Paltry Feeling.

A Society Of Atheists Would Immediately Invent A Religion.

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.

Love Based Upon Money And Vanity Forms The Most Stubborn Of Passions.

A Husband Can Commit No Greater Blunder Than To Discuss His Wife, If She Is Virtuous, With His Mistress; Unless It Be To Mention His Mistress, If She Is Beautiful, To His Wife.

The Mind, Too, Has Its Regimen. It Needs Gymnastics, Just Like The Body Does.

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

Latitude And Longitude

Forgetting Is The Great Secret Of Strong And Creative Lives.

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