Background Image

...

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.

-Honore De Balzac

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

When Tempted To Be

Honore De Balzac

...

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.

Views: 7776

Topic

More From Honore De Balzac

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

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

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.

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.

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

Hatred Like Love Feeds On The Merest Trifles.

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.

Prostitution And Robbery Are Two Living Protests, Respectively Female And Male, Made By The Natural State Against The Social State.

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.

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.

Solitude Is Fine, But You Need Someone To Tell You That Solitude Is Fine.

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

Where Poverty Ceases, Avarice Begins.

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 Lover Teaches A Wife All Her Husband Has Kept From Her.

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.

We Exaggerate Misfortune And Happiness Alike. We Are Never As Bad Off Or As Happy As We Say We Are.

Exaggeration Is

The Sanctity Of Womanhood Is Incompatible With Social Liberty And Social Claims; And For A Woman Emancipation Means Corruption.

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.

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

A Society Of Atheists Would Immediately Invent A Religion.

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

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

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.

We Are Scarcely Apt To Berate The Source Of Enjoyment.

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

Constancy Will Always Be The Genius Of Love, The Indication Of That Strength Which Constitutes The Poet. A Man Should Possess All Women In His Wife, Like Those Squalid Poetasters Of The Seventeenth Century Who Made Fair Irises And Dazzling Chloes Of Their Lowly Manons.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Love Which Economizes Is Never True Love.

Marriage Is A Fight To The Death, Before Which The Wedded Couple Ask A Blessing From Heaven, Because It Is The Rashest Of All Undertakings To Swear Eternal Love; The Fight At Once Commences And Victory, That Is To Say Liberty, Remains In The Hands Of The Cleverer Of The Two.

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.

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

A Grocer Is Attracted To His Business By A Magnetic Force As Great As The Repulsion Which Renders It Odious To Artists.

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

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

Love Knows Nothing Of Modesty.

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

I Believe In The Incomprehensibility Of God.

Carelessness In Dressing Is Moral Suicide.

In The First Woman We Love, We Love Everything. Growing Older, We Love The Woman Only.

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.

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?

Squeeze Marriage As Much As You Like, You Will Never Extract Anything From It But Fun For Bachelors And Boredom For Husbands.

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

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

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

Man Is No Match For Woman Where Mischief Reigns.

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.

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

Even Beauty Cannot Always Palliate Eccentricity.

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.

I Can No Longer Think Of Anything But You. In Spite Of Myself, My Imagination Carries Me To You. I Grasp You, I Kiss You, I Caress You, A Thousand Of The Most Amorous Caresses Take Possession Of Me.

Thinking Of You

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

A Woman's Sentimental Monkeyshines Will Always Deceive Her Lover, Who Invariably Waxes Ecstatic Where Her Husband Necessarily Shrugs His Shoulders.

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

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

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.

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

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

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?

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?

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Resignation Is A Daily Suicide.

A Mother's Life, You See, Is One Long Succession Of Dramas, Now Soft And Tender, Now Terrible. Not An Hour But Has Its Joys And Fears.

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 Questions The Man Who Loves Exactly As A Judge Questions A Criminal. This Being So, A Flash Of The Eye, A Mere Word, An Inflection Of The Voice Or A Moment's Hesitation Suffice To Expose The Fact, Betrayal Or Crime He Is Attempting To Conceal.

Women See Everything Or Nothing According To The Inclination Of Their Hearts. Love Is Their Sole Light.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Nobody Loves A Woman Because She Is Handsome Or Ugly, Stupid Or Intelligent. We Love Because We Love.

Falling In Love

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

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.

Are Not Poets Men Who Fulfill Their Hopes Prematurely?

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

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.

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 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.

Stupidity Assumes Two Forms, It Speaks Or Is Silent. Mute Stupidity Is Bearable.

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

Love Endows Us With A Sort Of Personal Religion; We Respect Another Live Within Ourselves.

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

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.

Only When One Has Learned To Acknowledge That Wiser Minds Have Made Better Words To Come Out Of Our Mouths May We Truly, Then, Begin To Speak Them.

[raphael's] Great Superiority Is Due To The Instinctive Sense Which, In Him, Seems To Desire To Shatter Form. Form Is, In His Figures, What It Is In Ourselves, An Interpreter For The Communication Of Ideas And Sensations, An Exhaustless Source Of Poetic Inspiration. Every Figure Is A World In Itself, A Portrait Of Which The Original Appeared In A Sublime Vision, In A Flood Of Light, Pointed To By An Inward Voice, Laid Bare By A Divine Finger Which Showed What The Sources Of Expression Had Been In The Whole Past Life Of The Subject.

Society Proceeds Like The Ocean. After A Disaster, It Resume Its Wonted Level And Rhythms; Its Devouring Interests Efface All Traces Of Damage.

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

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.

The Greatest Joy A Petty Soul Can Taste Is To Dupe A Great Soul And Catch It In A Snare.

But Does Not Happiness Come From The Soul Within?

Creole Women Take After Europe In Their Intelligence, After The Tropics In The Illogical Violence Of Their Passions, And After The Indies In The Apathetic Indolence With Which They Commit Or Suffer Good And Evil.

A Lui La Foi, A' Elle Le Doute, A' Elle Le Fardeau Le Plus Lourd: La Femme Ne Souffre-t-elle Pas Toujours Pour Deux? For Him, Faith; For Her, Doubt And For Her Theheavier Load: Does Not The Woman Always Suffer For Both?

To Stroll Is A Science, It Is The Gastronomy Of The Eye. To Walk Is To Vegetate, To Stroll Is To Live.... To Stroll Is To Enjoy, It Is To Assume A Mind-set, It Is To Admire The Sublime Pictures Of Unhappiness, Of Love, Of Joy, Of Graceful Or Grotesque Portraits; It Is To Plunge One's Vision To The Depths Of A Thousand Existences: Young, It Is To Desire Everything; Old, It Is To Live The Life Of The Young, To Marry Their Passions.

Imaginative, Sanguine Men Will Never Recognize That In Negotiations The Most Dangerous Moment Of All Is When Everything Is Moving According To Their Wishes.

Ambitious Men Spend Their Youth In Rendering Themselves Worthy Of Patronage; It Is Their Great Mistake. While The Foolish Creatures Are Laying In Stores Of Knowledge And Energy, So That They Shall Not Sink Under The Weight Of Responsible Posts That Recede From Them, Schemers Come And Go Who Are Wealthy In Words And Destitute Of Ideas, Astonish The Ignorant, And Creep Into The Confidence Of Those Who Have A Little Knowledge.

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

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.

A Letter Is A Soul, So Faithful An Echo Of The Speaking Voice That To The Sensitive It Is Among The Richest Treasures Of Love.

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.

We Have Long Struggles With Ourself, Of Which The Outcome Is One Of Our Actions; They Are, As It Were, The Inner Side Of Human Nature. This Inner Side Is God's; The Outer Side Belongs To Men.

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

Passion Is Born Deaf And Dumb.

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

Latitude And Longitude

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.

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

A Man May And Ought To Pride Himself More On His Will Than On His Talent.

The Smallest Flower Is A Thought, A Life Answering To Some Feature Of The Great Whole, Of Whom They Have A Persistent Intuition.

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

Woman Is A Most Charming Creature, Who Changes Her Heart As Easily As She Does Her Gloves.

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.

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

Our Greatest Fears Lie In Anticipation.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

The Life Of A Man Who Deliberately Runs Through His Fortune Often Becomes A Business Speculation; His Friends, His Pleasures, Patrons, And Acquaintances Are His Capital.

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

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

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!

A Man Is A Poor Creature Compared To A Woman.

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.

Who Is To Decide Which Is The Grimmer Sight: Withered Hearts, Or Empty Skulls?

Great Love Affairs Start With Champagne And End With Tisane.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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?

Great Minds Always Tend To See Virtue In Misfortune.

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

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

Found Happiness

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.

Vivacity Is The Health Of The Spirit.

Manners Are The Hypocrisy Of A Nation.

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

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.

Love Is The Only Way On Which Even The Dim-witted Reaches Certain Heights.

The More You Judge, The Less You Love.

We Love Because We Love.

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

Imagination Helps The Realism Of Every Detail, And Only Sees The Beauties Of The Work.

The Union Of A Want And A Sentiment.

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

Ah! The Soft Starlight Of Virgin Eyes.

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.

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

Today Nobility Is Gone: There Is Only A Peerage.

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

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

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?

Misfortune Makes Of Certain Souls A Vast Desert Through Which Rings The Voice Of God.

At Fifteen, Neither Beauty Nor Talent Exist: A Woman Is All Promise.

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

Every Moment Of Happiness Requires A Great Amount Of Ignorance

Moments Of Happiness

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

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.

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.

I Yield To Your Wishes. It Is The Privilege Of The Women Whom We Love More Than They Love Us To Make The Men Who Love Them Ignore The Ordinary Rules Of Common-sense.

Temperament Is The Thermometer Of Character.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

When Women Love Us, They Forgive Us Everything, Even Our Crimes; When They Do Not Love Us, They Give Us Credit For Nothing, Not Even Our Virtues.

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

He Who Best Knows The World Will Love It Least.

Misfortune, No Less Than Happiness, Inspires Us To Dream.

Once She Has Committed Sin, There Is Nothing Left For The Protestant Woman, Whereas The Catholic Church, Hope Of Forgiveness Makes A Woman Sublime.

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

With Monuments As With Men, Position Means Everything.

By Resorting To Self-resignation, The Unfortunate Consummate.

Forgetting Is The Great Secret Of Strong And Creative Lives.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

During The Great Storms Of Our Lives We Imitate Those Captains Who Jettison Their Weightiest Cargo.

Trending Author

Margaret Wise Brown

Category