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What Moralist Can Deny That Well-bred And Vicious People Are Much More Agreeable Than Their Virtuous Counterparts? Having Crimes To Atone For, They Provisionally Solicit Indulgence By Showing Leniency Toward The Defects Of Their Judges. Thus They Pass For Excellent Folk.

-Honore De Balzac

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What Moralist Can Deny

Honore De Balzac

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What Moralist Can Deny That Well-bred And Vicious People Are Much More Agreeable Than Their Virtuous Counterparts? Having Crimes To Atone For, They Provisionally Solicit Indulgence By Showing Leniency Toward The Defects Of Their Judges. Thus They Pass For Excellent Folk.

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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.

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

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Men Are Such Dupes By Choice, That He Who Would Impose Upon Others Never Need Be At A Loss To Find Ready Victims.

Like Evil, Sublimity Is Also Contagious.

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

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

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

Journalists Grow Accustomed To Seeing Evil And They Let It Pass; They Proceed To Approve It, And They End By Committing It Themselves.

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.

To Promote Laughter Without Joining In It Greatly Heightens The Effect.

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

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

Old Maids Claw As Cats Do. They Not Only Inflict Wounds But Experience Pleasure In Doing So. Nor Will They Fail To Remind Their Victims Of The Blood Drawn.

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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.

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

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

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.

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

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Necessity Is Often The Spur To Genius.

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

The Wounds Of Self-love Turn Incurable When The Oxide Of Self-love Gets Into Them.

Glory Is The Sunshine Of The Dead

Glory Is A Poison, Good To Be Taken In Small Doses.

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.

True Lovers Know How Trifling A Thing Is Money Yet How Difficult To Blend With Love!

A Mother's Happiness Is Like A Beacon, Lighting Up The Future But Reflected Also On The Past In The Guise Of Fond Memories.

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.

Too Great A Display Of Delicacy Can And Does Sometimes Infringe Upon De-cency.

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

Between The Daylight Gambler And The Player At Night There Is The Same Difference That Lies Between A Careless Husband And The Lover Swooning Under His Lady's Window.

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.

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Nothing Can Afford A Woman Greater Pleasure Than To Hear Tender Words Of Love. The Strictest, Most Devout Woman Will Listen Even If She Must Not Answer.

Everybody All Over The World Takes A Wife's Estimate Into Account In Forming An Opinion Of A Man.

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.

Good Befalls Us While We Sleep, Sometimes.

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

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

Modesty Is The Conscience Of The Body.

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?

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

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

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.

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.

No Man Has Ever Yet Discovered The Way To Give Friendly Advice To Any Woman, Not Even To His Own Wife.

Narrow Minds Can Develop As Well Through Persecution As Through Benevolence; They Can Assure Themselves Of Their Power By Tyrannizing Cruelly Or Beneficially Over Others.

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

How Natural It Is To Destroy What We Cannot Possess, To Deny What We Do Not Understand, And To Insult What We Envy!

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.

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.

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.

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

Rare Is The Man Who Suffers No Remorse As He Passes From The State Of Confidant To That Of Rival.

Hope Is A Light Diet, But Very Stimulating.

Society Bristles With Enigmas Which Look Hard To Solve. It Is A Perfect Maze Of Intrigue.

Time Is The Only Capital Of Those Who Just Have Their Inteligence As Fortune.

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

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

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?

Love Knows Nothing Of Modesty.

Forgetting Is The Great Secret Of Strong And Creative Lives.

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

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

Nothing Is As Heady As The Wine Of Misfortune.

Our Greatest Fears Lie In Anticipation.

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.

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.

Women Are Always True, Even In The Midst Of Their Greatest Falsities, Because They Are Always Influenced By Some Natural Feeling.

Reading Brings Us Unknown Friends

It's Catastrophies Which Turn Wise And Strong People Into Philosophers.

When An Intelligent Man Reaches The Point Of Inviting Self-explanation And Offers Surrendering The Key To His Heart, He Is Assuredly Riding A Drunken Horse.

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