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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.
-Honore De Balzac
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The Innocence Of Virgins

Honore De Balzac
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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.

Understanding the Quote: "the innocence of virgins is like milk which turns when exposed to..."

This quote by Honore De Balzac reflects deeply on the theme of smell. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Smell, Hot, Milk, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Honore de Balzac interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Honore De Balzac

Honore De Balzac is celebrated for insightful thoughts on smell and hot. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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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.
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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.
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Political Liberty, The Peace Of A Nation, And Science Itself Are Gifts For Which Fate Demands A Heavy Tax In Blood!
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A Sacrament By Virtue Of Which Each Imparts Nothing But Vexations To The Other.
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Hatred Like Love Feeds On The Merest Trifles.
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Wife
A Flow Of Words Is A Sure Sign Of Duplicity.
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Duplicity
Flow
Sects Differ More In Name Than Tenets.
Names
Religion
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Whoever Does Not Visit Paris Regularly Will Never Really Be Elegant.
Paris
Doe
Good French
Lovers Have A Way Of Using This Word "nothing" Which Implies Exactly The Opposite.
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Literature
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Men Are Perfectly Willing To Abandon A Woman But They Refuse To Be Abandoned By Her.
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Abandoned
Refuse
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.
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Children
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Moving
Fall
Power Is Action; The Electoral Principle Is Discussion. No Political Action Is Possible When Discussion Is Permanently Established.
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Political
Principles
Once She Has Committed Sin, There Is Nothing Left For The Protestant Woman, Whereas The Catholic Church, Hope Of Forgiveness Makes A Woman Sublime.
Catholic
Sublime
Church
Lofty Souls Are Always Inclined To Make A Virtue Of Misfortune.
Soul
Virtue
Lofty
Those Sweetly Smiling Angels With Pensive Looks, Innocent Faces, And Cash-boxes For Hearts.
Heart
Angel
Looks
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?
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Discovery
Asking
Grief Ennobles The Commonest People Because It Has Its Own Essential Grandeur. To Shine With The Luster Of Grief, A Person Need Only Be Sincere.
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People
Shining
Great Love Affairs Start With Champagne And End With Tisane.
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Wine
Tea
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.
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Hatred
Temptation
Your Modest Savant Smiles As He Says To His Admirers: What Have I Done? Nothing. Man Does Not Invent A Force, He Directs It.
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Giving
Village Idiots
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.
Work
Pride
Mind
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.
Mother
Children
Character
Everybody All Over The World Takes A Wife's Estimate Into Account In Forming An Opinion Of A Man.
Women
Wife
World
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.
Powerful
Passion
Wine
Finance, Like Time, Devours Its Own Children.
Time
Money
Children
The Day Will Dawn When Europe Will Believe Only In The Man Who Tramples Her Underfoot.
Believe
Men
Europe
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.
Character
Men
Two
The Passion Of Love Is Essentially Selfish, While Motherhood Widens The Circle Of Our Feelings.
Love
Selfish
Passion
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.
Badass
Bad Ass
Events
Death Unites As Well As Separates; It Silences All Paltry Feeling.
Silence
Feelings
Wells
L'amour N'est Pas Seulement Un Sentiment, Il Est Un Art Aussi. Love Is Not Only A Feeling; It Is Also An Art.
Art
Love Is
Feelings
People Who Climb From One Rung Of Society To Another Can Never Do Anything Simply.
People
Society
Climbs
The Union Of A Want And A Sentiment.
Love
Poetry
Unions
What Is Art? Nature Concentrated.
Art
Nature
Literature
One Can Imagine The Look The Two Lovers Exchanged; It Was Like A Flame, For Virtuous Lovers Have Not A Shred Of Hypocrisy.
Flames
Two
Hypocrisy
There Are Houses In Certain Provincial Towns Whose Aspect Inspires Melancholy, Akin To That Called Forth By Sombre Cloisters, Dreary Moorlands, Or The Desolation Of Ruins. Within These Houses There Is, Perhaps, The Silence Of The Cloister, The Barrenness Of Moors, The Skeleton Of Ruins; Life And Movement Are So Stagnant There That A Stranger Might Think Them Uninhabited, Were It Not That He Encounters Suddenly The Pale, Cold Glance Of A Motionless Person, Whose Half-monastic Face Peers Beyond The Window-casing At The Sound Of An Unaccustomed Step.
Book
Thinking
Skeletons
All Happiness Depends On Courage And Work.
Life
Happiness
Courage
He Who Best Knows The World Will Love It Least.
World
Knows
By Dint Of Making Sacrifices, A Man Grows Interested In The Person Who Exacts Them. Great Ladies, Like Courtesans, Know This Truth By Instinct.
Sacrifice
Men
Instinct
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.
Love
Sea
Soul
In France We Can Cauterize Wounds But We Do Not Yet Know Any Remedy For The Injuries Inflicted By A Bon Mot.
France
Injury
Remedy
Love May Be Or It May Not, But Where It Is, It Ought To Reveal Itself In Its Immensity.
Love
May
Immensity
What Saves The Virtue Of Many A Woman Is That Protecting God, The Impossible.
Impossible
Virtue
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.
Beautiful
Husband
Mistake
A Lover Always Thinks Of His Mistress First And Himself Second; With A Husband It Runs The Other Way.
Running
Husband
Thinking
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.
Kindness
Rocks
Hands
A Creole Woman Is Like A Child, She Wants To Possess Everything Immediately; Like A Child, She Would Set Fire To A House In Order To Fry An Egg. In Her Languor, She Thinks Of Nothing; When Passionately Aroused, She Thinks Of Any Act Possible Or Impossible.
Children
Women
Thinking
An Ounce Of Courage Will Go Farther With Women Than A Pound Of Timidity.
Pounds
Timidity
Any Man, However Blase Or Depraved, Finds His Love Kindled Anew When He Sees Himself Threatened By A Rival.
Love
Men
Rivals
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?
Men
Thinking
Law
Remorse Is Impotence, Impotence Which Sins Again. Repentance Alone Is Powerful; It Ends All.
Powerful
Sin
Repentance
Women See Everything Or Nothing According To The Inclination Of Their Hearts. Love Is Their Sole Light.
Love
Heart
Light
You May Imitate, But Never Counterfeit.
May
Imitation
Counterfeit
Hope Is A Light Diet, But Very Stimulating.
Light
Diets
If We Could But Paint With The Hand What We See With The Eye.
Art
Eye
Hands
A Vocation Is Born To Us All; Happily Most Of Us Meet Promptly Our Twin,--occupation.
Occupation
Twins
Born
The Man Who Enters His Wife's Dressing Room Is Either A Philosopher Or A Fool.
Women
Wife
Rooms
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.
Couple
Passion
Hazards
Journalists Grow Accustomed To Seeing Evil And They Let It Pass; They Proceed To Approve It, And They End By Committing It Themselves.
Evil
Ends
Journalist
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Category
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