Background Image

...

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.

-Honore De Balzac

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

What Moralists Describe As

Honore De Balzac

...

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.

Views: 11425

Topic

More From Honore De Balzac

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

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.

To Lese-majeste And Contempt Of Court, We Must Add The Crime Of Lese-million, That Fearful Indignity We Visit On The Rich When We Expose The Impotence Of Gold.

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.

How Can We Explain The Perpetuity Of Envy--a Vice Which Yields No Return?

It Is Only In The Act Of Nursing That A Woman Realizes Her Motherhood In Visible And Tangible Fashion; It Is A Joy Of Every Moment.

There Are Words Which Cut Like Steel.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Glory Is The Sunshine Of The Dead

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

Priests, Magistrates And Ladies Never Quite Take Off Their Gowns.

Nothing Is As Heady As The Wine Of Misfortune.

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

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

Women Are Ever The Dupes Or The Victims Of Their Extreme Sensitiveness.

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

The National Budget Is Not A Safe-deposit Box. It Is A Spray Can.

A Rent In Your Clothes Is A Mishap, A Stain On Them Is A Vice.

To Get A Traveling Salesman Drunk Is The Height Of Impossibility.

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

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

The Police And The Society Of Jesus Posses In Common The Virtue Of Never Forsaking Their Enemies As Friends.

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

Thanks To The Toleration Preached By The Encyclopedists Of The Eighteenth Century, The Sorcerer Is Exempt From Torture.

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

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.

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

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.

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

An Unfulfilled Vocation Drains The Color From A Man's Entire Existence.

Numbers Are Intellectual Witnesses That Belong Only To Mankind.

We Must Certainly Acknowledge That Solitude Is A Fine Thing; But It Is A Pleasure To Have Some One Who Can Answer, And To Whom We Can Say, From Time To Time, That Solitude Is A Fine Thing.

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

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.

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

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

Found Happiness

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.

To Live In The Presence Of Great Truths And Eternal Laws, To Be Led By Permanent Ideals - That Is What Keeps A Man Patient When The World Ignores Him, And Calm And Unspoiled When The World Praises Him.

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 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

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

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

Marriageable Girls As Well As Mothers Understand The Terms And Perils Of The Lottery Called Wedlock. That Is Why Women Weep At A Wedding And Men Smile.

There Is Something Great And Terrible About Suicide.

The More One Judges, The Less One Loves.

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

When We Drink Coffee, Ideas March In Like The Army

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

Nos Beaux Sentiments Ne Sont-ils Pas Les Poe Sies De La Volonte ? Aren't Our Best Feelings Poetry Of The Will?

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 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.

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.

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

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

Necessity Is The Spur Of Genius.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

True Love Rules Especially Through Memory.

Le Mariage Doit Incessamment Combattre Un Monstre Qui De V Ore Tout: L'habitude. Marriage Should Always Combat The Monster That Devours Everything: Habit.

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

A Jealous Husband Doesnt Doubt His Wife, But Himself.

For A Sick Man The World Begins At His Pillow And Ends At The Foot Of His Bed.

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

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

I Prefer Thought To Action, An Idea To A Transaction, Contemplation To Activity.

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 Religion And Royalty Are Swept Away, The People Will Attack The Great, And After The Great, They Will Fall Upon The Rich.

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

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

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

True Love Is Mixed Up With Birdlike Squabbles, In Which The Disputants Wound Each Other To The Quick; But A Quarrel Without Animus Is, On The Contrary, Apiece Of Flattery To The Dupe's Conceit.

A Monster Which Devours Everything - That Is Familiarity.

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

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

Study Lends A Kind Of Enchantment To All Our Surroundings.

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

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

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

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.

The Prodigality Of Millionaires Is Comparable Only To Their Greed Of Gain. Let Some Whim Or Passion Seize Them And Money Is Of No Account. In Fact These Croesuses Find Whims And Passions Harder To Come By Than Gold.

The Habits Of Every Animal Are, At Least In The Eyes Of Man, Constantly Similar In All Ages. But The Habits, The Clothes, The Words And The Dwelling Of A Prince, A Banker, An Artist, A Bourgeois, A Priest And A Pauper, Are Wholly Dissimilar And Change At The Will Of Civilizations.

Marriage Is A Fierce Battle Before Which The Two Partners Ask Heaven For Its Blessing, Because Loving Each Other Is The Most Audacious Of Enterprises; The Battle Is Not Slow To Start, And Victory, That Is To Say Freedom, Goes To The Cleverest.

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

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

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.

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

All We Are Is In The Soul.

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

There Is Neither Vice Nor Virtue, There Are Only Circumstances.

By And Large, Women Have A Faith And A Morality Peculiar To Themselves; They Believe In The Reality Of Everything That Serves Their Interest And Their Passions.

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

Love Is Perhaps No More Than Gratitude For Pleasure.

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.

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

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

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

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?

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

Tradesmen Regard An Author With A Mixed Feeling Of Terror, Compassion And Curiosity.

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

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

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

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

Economized Love Is Never Real Love.

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.

Among Fifty Percent Of Your Married Couples, The Husband Worries Very Little About What His Wife Is Doing, Provided She Is Doing All He Wishes.

Marriage Must Fight Constantly Against A Monster Which Devours Everything: Routine.

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.

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.

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

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

Vivacity Is The Health Of The Spirit.

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

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.

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

Great Minds Always Tend To See Virtue In Misfortune.

There Is Nothing Original; All Is Reflected Light.

The Pleasures Of Love Proceed Successively From A Distich To A Quatrain, From A Quatrain To A Sonnet, From A Sonnet To A Ballad, From A Ballad To An Ode, From An Ode To A Cantata, And From A Cantata To A Dithyramb. A Husband Who Begins With The Dithyramb Is A Fool.

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.

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

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.

Women, Perhaps Even Require A Little Hypocrisy.

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.

Men Who Pay Their Tailors Never Amount To Anything, They Never Even Become Cabinet Ministers.

Our Most Natural Feelings Are Those We Are Loath To Confess, And Fatuity Is Among Them.

Natural Feelings

Love Is The Only Passion Which Suffers Neither Past Nor Future.

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.

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.

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.

Perhaps It Is Only Human Nature To Inflict Suffering On Anything That Will Endure Suffering, Whether By Reason Of Its Genuine Humility, Or Indifference, Or Sheer Helplessness.

Power Is Action; The Electoral Principle Is Discussion. No Political Action Is Possible When Discussion Is Permanently Established.

Men Are So Made That They Can Resist Sound Argument, And Yet Yield To A Glance.

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

A Young Bride Is Like A Plucked Flower; But A Guilty Wife Is Like A Flower That Had Been Walked Over.

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

We Are Scarcely Apt To Berate The Source Of Enjoyment.

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

Man Is No Match For Woman Where Mischief Reigns.

I Am A Galley Slave To Pen And Ink.

Wisdom Is That Apprehension Of Heavenly Things To Which The Spirit Rises Through Love.

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

Nothing Is Unimportant To A Man Plunged In Despair. He Is As Credulous As A Criminal Sentenced To Death Who Listens To A Lunatic Raving To Him About How He Can Escape Through The Keyhole.

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.

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

Hatred Like Love Feeds On The Merest Trifles. Everything Adds To It. Just As The Being We Love Can Do No Wrong, So The One We Hate Can Do No Right.

All Happiness Depends On Courage And Work.

Marriage Is An Institution Necessary To The Maintenance Of Society But Contrary To The Laws Of Nature.

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.

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

Six Weeks With A Fever Is An Eternity.

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

In Diving To The Bottom Of Pleasure We Bring Up More Gravel Than Pearls.

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.

A Country Is Strong Which Consists Of Wealthy Families, Every Member Of Whom Is Interested In Defending A Common Treasure; It Is Weak When Composed Of Scattered Individuals, To Whom It Matters Little Whether They Obey Seven Or One, A Russian Or A Corsican, So Long As Each Keeps His Own Plot Of Land, Blind In Their Wretched Egotism, To The Fact That The Day Is Coming When This Too Will Be Torn From Them.

A Beautiful Book Is A Victory Won In All The Battlefields Of Human Thought.

Hatred Like Love Feeds On The Merest Trifles.

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

To Say To A Rich Man: You Are Poor! Is To Tell The Archbishop Of Granada That His Sermons Are Worthless.

I Should Like One Of These Days To Be So Well Known, So Popular, So Celebrated, So Famous, That It Would Permit Me . . . To Break Wind In Society, And Society Would Think It A Most Natural Thing.

People Who Climb From One Rung Of Society To Another Can Never Do Anything Simply.

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

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.

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

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

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

Love And Work Have The Virtues Of Making A Man Pretty Indifferent To Anything Else.

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

Love Or Hatred Must Constantly Increase Between Two Persons Who Are Always Together; Every Moment Fresh Reasons Are Found For Loving Or Hating Better.

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.

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

What Is Motherhood Save Nature In Her Most Gladsome Mood?

A Mother Who Is Really A Mother Is Never Free.

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.

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

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

Nothing Is Irredeemably Ugly But Sin.

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.

Does Anyone Know Where These Gondolas Of Paris Come From? [fr., Ne Sait On Pas Ou Viennent Ces Gondoles Parisiennes?]

One Hour Of Love Has A Whole Life In It.

Rich Women Need Not Fear Old Age; Their Gold Can Always Create About Them Any Feelings Necessary To Their Happiness.

Clouds Symbolize The Veils That Shroud God.

To Feel, To Love, To Suffer, To Devote Herself, Will Always Be The Text Of The Life Of Woman.

Great Love Affairs Start With Champagne And End With Tisane.

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

People Who Are In Love Suspect Nothing Or Everything.

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.

Trending Author

Harry Belafonte

Sophie Ellis Bextor

Category