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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.

-Honore De Balzac

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No Hawk Swooping Down

Honore De Balzac

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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.

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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.

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.

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

Courtesy Is Only A Thin Veneer On The General Selfishness.

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

Physically, A Man Is A Man For A Much Longer Time Than A Woman Is A Woman.

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

I Declare, On My Soul And Conscience, That The Attainment Of Power, Or Of A Great Name In Literature, Seemed To Me An Easier Victory Than A Success With Some Young, Witty, And Gracious Lady Of High Degree.

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.

Those Sweetly Smiling Angels With Pensive Looks, Innocent Faces, And Cash-boxes For Hearts.

One Should Believe In Marriage As In The Immortality Of The Soul.

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.

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

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

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

Modesty Is The Conscience Of The Body.

We Do Not Attach Ourselves Lastingly To Anything That Has Not Cost Us Care, Labor Or Longing.

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.

In Paris Every Man Must Have Had A Love Affair. What Woman Wants Something That No Other Woman Ever Wanted.

Emulation Is Not Rivalry. Emulation Is The Child Of Ambition; Rivalry Is The Unlovable Daughter Of Envy.

Hatred Like Love Feeds On The Merest Trifles.

For Avarice Begins Where Poverty Ends.

It Is Always Assumed By The Empty-headed, Who Chatter About Themselves For Want Of Something Better, That People Who Do Not Discuss Their Affairs Openly Must Have Something To Hide.

White Hair Often Covers The Head, But The Heart That Holds It Is Ever Young.

Economized Love Is Never Real Love.

Kindness Is Not Without Its Rocks Ahead. People Are Apt To Put It Down To An Easy Temper And Seldom Recognize It As The Secret Striving Of A Generous Nature; Whilst, On The Other Hand, The Ill-natured Get Credit For All The Evil They Refrain From.

I'm A Great Poet. I Don't Put My Poems On Paper: They Consist Of Actions And Feelings.

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.

Love Is The Most Melodious Of All Harmonies.

No Husband Will Ever Be Better Avenged Than By His Wife's Lover.

When We Drink Coffee, Ideas March In Like The Army

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

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 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.

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

Passions Are No More Forgiving Than Human Laws And They Reason More Justly. Are They Not Based On A Conscience Of Their Own, Infallible As An Instinct?

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

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

Love Is Precisely To The Moral Nature What The Sun Is To The Earth.

Beauty Is The Greatest Of Human Powers. Any Power Without Counterbalance Or Control Becomes Autocratic And Leads To Abuse And To Folly. Despotism In A Government Is Insanity; In Woman, Fantasy.

A Man Is A Poor Creature Compared To A Woman.

Small Natures Require Despotism To Exercise Their Sinews, As Great Souls Thirst For Equality To Give Play To Their Heart.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Our Greatest Fears Lie In Anticipation.

Virtue In Women Is Perhaps A Question Of Temperament.

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

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

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

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

When Attempted Self-destruction Does Not Cure A Man Of Life, It Cures Him Of Voluntary Death.

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

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

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

There Are As Many Mediocrities Exalted Through Pity As Masters Decried Through Envy.

No Woman Has Ever Existed Who Did Not Know Perfectly Well In Her Heart What To Expect From The Superiority Or Inferiority Of A Rival.

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.

Equality May Be A Right, But No Power On Earth Can Convert It Into Fact.

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.

White And Shining Virgin Of All Human Virtues, Ark Of The Covenant Between Earth And Heaven, Tender And Strong Companion Partaking Of The Lion And Of The Lamb, Prayer! Prayer Will Give You The Key Of Heaven! Bold And Pure As Innocence, Strong, Like All That Is Single And Simple, This Glorious, Invincible Queen Rests, Nevertheless, On The Material World; She Takes Possession Of It; Like The Sun, She Clasps It In A Circle Of Light.

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.

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.

But Woman Brings Disorder Into Society Through Passion.

The Union Of A Want And A Sentiment.

Conscience Is A Cudgel Which All Men Pick Up In Order To Thwack Their Neighbors Instead Of Applying It To Their Own Shoulders.

Numbers Are Intellectual Witnesses That Belong Only To Mankind.

In All Lands, Sailors Form A Race Apart. They Profess A Congenital Contempt For Landlubbers. As For The Tradesman, He Understands Nothing Of Sailors Nor Cares A Fig About Them. He Is Content To Rob Them If He Can.

Vivacity Is The Health Of The Spirit.

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

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

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

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

There Is Nothing Original; All Is Reflected Light.

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.

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

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

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

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

Resignation Is A Daily Suicide.

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

The More You Judge, The Less You Love.

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.

To Those Who Have Exhausted Politics, Nothing Remains But Abstract Thought.

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

Glory Is The Sunshine Of The Dead

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

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

The Endless Legacy Of The Past To The Present Is The Secret Source Of Human Genius.

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

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

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

There Are Two Kinds Of Poets: Those Who Feel And Those Who Express Themselves. The Former Are Happier.

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

Children, Dear And Loving Children, Can Alone Console A Woman For The Loss Of Her Beauty.

Inspiration Is The Opportunity Of Genius.

Suicide, Moreover, Was At The Time In Vogue In Paris: What More Suitable Key To The Mystery Of Life For A Skeptical Society?

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

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

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.

Alas, Two Men Are Often Necessary To Provide A Woman With A Perfect Lover, Just As In Literature A Writer Composes A Type Only By Employing The Singularities Of Several Similar Characters.

Study Lends A Kind Of Enchantment To All Our Surroundings.

Foppery, Being The Chronic Condition Of Women, Is Not So Much Noticed As It Is When It Breaks Out On The Person Of The Male Bird.

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

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

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 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.

Forgetting Is The Great Secret Of Strong And Creative Lives.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

The Art Of Motherhood Involves Much Silent, Unobtrusive Self-denial, An Hourly Devotion Which Finds No Detail Too Minute.

Le Bonheur Engloutit Nos Forces, Comme Le Malheur E Teint Nos Vertus. Happiness Engulfs Our Strength, Just As Misfortune Extinguishes Our Virtues.

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

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

A Flow Of Words Is A Sure Sign Of Duplicity.

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

The Human Heart May Find Here And There A Resting-place Short Of The Highest Height Of Affection, But We Seldom Stop In The Steep, Downward Slope Of Hatred.

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

Love Knows Nothing Of Modesty.

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.

We Are Never Either So Wretched Or So Happy As We Say We Are.

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

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

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.

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

They Ended As All Great Passions Do End - By A Misunderstanding.

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

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

Carelessness In Dressing Is Moral Suicide.

In France Everything Is A Matter For Jest. People Make Quips About The Scaffold, About Napoleon's Defeat On The Banks Of The Beresina, And About The Barricades Of Our Revolutions. So, At The Assizes Of The Last Judgment, There Will Always Be A Frenchmen To Crack A Joke.

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?

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

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

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

Love Is Not Only A Feeling, It Is Also An Art. A Simple Word, A Sensitive Precaution, A Mere Nothing Reveal To A Woman The Sublime Artist Who Can Touch Her Heart Without Withering It.

Finance, Like Time, Devours Its Own Children.

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.

Le Coeur D'une Me' Re Est Un Ab|"me Au Fond Duquel Se Trouve Toujours Un Pardon. A Mother'sheart Isanabyss Atthebottomof Whichthere Is Always Forgiveness.

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

A Girl Fresh From A Boarding School May Perhaps Be A Virgin But No! She Is Never Chaste.

Love Which Economizes Is Never True Love.

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

Does Not Any Limit Imposed Upon One Inspire A Desire To Go Beyond It? Does Not Our Keenest Suffering Arise When Our Free Will Is Crossed?

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

In Paris, The Greatest Expression Of Personal Satisfaction Known To Man Is The Smirk On The Face Of A Male, Highly Pleased With Himself As He Leaves The Boudoir Of A Lady.

A Husband And Wife Who Are In The Habit Of Occupying Separate Rooms Are Either Beings Apart, Or They Have Found Happiness. Either They Hate Or They Adore Each Other.

Found Happiness

Sects Differ More In Name Than Tenets.

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?

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.

Men Die In Despair, While Spirits Die In Ecstasy.

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

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

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...

All We Are Is In The Soul.

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.

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.

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

The Errors Of Women Spring, Almost Always, From Their Faith In The Good, Or Their Confidence In The True

Thinking Is Seeing.... Every Human Science Is Based On Deduction, Which Is A Slow Process Of Seeing By Which We Work Up From The Effect To The Cause; Or, In A Wider Sense, All Poetry Like Every Work Of Art Proceeds From A Swift Vision Of Things.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

The Majority Of Husbands Remind Me Of An Orangutan Trying To Play The Violin.

A Society Of Atheists Would Immediately Invent A Religion.

The Fashions We Call English In Paris Are French In London, And Vice Versa. Franco-british Hostility Vanishes When It Comes To Questions Of Words And Clothing. God Save The King Is A Tune Composed By Lully For A Chorus In A Play By Racine.

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?

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

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.

Nothing Is As Heady As The Wine Of Misfortune.

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.

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

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

Good Befalls Us While We Sleep, Sometimes.

Life In Clubs Is No Paltry Sign Of The Times We Live In. Here Gentlemen Gamble With Others Whom They Would Not Dream Of Inviting To Their Homes.

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

Poverty Is A Divine Stepmother Who Does For Youths What Their Own Mothers Were Unable To Do. It Introduces Them To Frugality, To The World And To Life.

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.

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

What Is Art? Nature Concentrated.

The Glutton Is Much More Than An Animal And Much Less Than A Man.

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

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