Honore De Balzac quotes

Honore De Balzac (1799-1850) was a French literary giant and one of the founders of realism in literature. Known for his intricate storytelling and detailed character development, Balzac created a vast and interconnected universe in his series of novels and stories collectively known as "La Comédie Humaine." With his sharp observations of society, Balzac captured the nuances of human behavior, exploring themes such as love, ambition, and social hierarchy. His works, including "Eugenie Grandet" and "Lost Illusions," have become classics of French literature, displaying his deep understanding of human nature. Balzac's passion for his craft led him to tirelessly write and revise, adopting a disciplined routine of writing up to 15 hours a day. His profound impact on literature resonates even today, making him a revered figure of French literary history.

The habits of life form the soul, and the soul forms the countenance.

- Honore De Balzac

Children, dear and loving children, can alone console a woman for the loss of her beauty.

- Honore De Balzac

Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.

- Honore De Balzac

To those who have exhausted politics, nothing remains but abstract thought.

- Honore De Balzac

Nothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that he is superior to the other.

- Honore De Balzac

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.

- Honore De Balzac

The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute.

- Honore De Balzac

Conscience is our unerring judge until we finally stifle it.

- Honore De Balzac

Men die in despair, while spirits die in ecstasy.

- Honore De Balzac

The country is provincial; it becomes ridiculous when it tries to ape Paris.

- Honore De Balzac

The more one judges, the less one loves.

- Honore De Balzac

The man whose action habitually bears the stamp of his mind is a genius, but the greatest genius is not always equal to himself, or he would cease to be human.

- Honore De Balzac

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

- Honore De Balzac

There is no such thing as a great talent without great will power.

- Honore De Balzac

A lover always thinks of his mistress first and himself second; with a husband it runs the other way.

- Honore De Balzac

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.

- Honore De Balzac

Study lends a kind of enchantment to all our surroundings.

- Honore De Balzac

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.

- Honore De Balzac

Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.

- Honore De Balzac

An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.

- Honore De Balzac

But reason always cuts a poor figure beside sentiment; the one being essentially restricted, like everything that is positive, while the other is infinite.

- Honore De Balzac

The motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one.

- Honore De Balzac

Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane.

- Honore De Balzac

Nothing is a greater impediment to being on good terms with others than being ill at ease with yourself.

- Honore De Balzac

There are some women whose pregnancy would make some sly bachelor smile.

- Honore De Balzac

Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine.

- Honore De Balzac

Suicide, moreover, was at the time in vogue in Paris: what more suitable key to the mystery of life for a skeptical society?

- Honore De Balzac

A good husband is never the first to go to sleep at night or the last to awake in the morning.

- Honore De Balzac

The smallest flower is a thought, a life answering to some feature of the Great Whole, of whom they have a persistent intuition.

- Honore De Balzac

If those who are the enemies of innocent amusements had the direction of the world, they would take away the spring, and youth, the former from the year, the latter from human life.

- Honore De Balzac