Honoré de Balzac

solitude fine someone tell

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

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

happiness courage work

“All happiness depends on courage and work.”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

laws spider web big flies pass little caught

“Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

women true natural feeling

“Women are always true, even in the midst of their greatest falsities, because they are always influenced by some natural feeling.”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

happiness ignorance

“Every moment of happiness requires a great amount of Ignorance”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

fortune crime rich

“Behind every great fortune there is a crime.”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

great talent willpower

“There is no such thing as a great talent without great willpower.”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

deep wide

“I am not deep, but I am very wide.”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

equality right fact

“Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

passion born deaf dumb

“Passion is born deaf and dumb.”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

love affairs start champagne end tisane

“Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

bureaucracy giant mechanism operate pygmees

“Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

man marry anatomy dissect woman marriage

“No man should marry until he has studied anatomy and dissected at least one woman.”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

time capital intelligence fortune

“Time is the only capital of those who just have their inteligence as fortune.”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

opposition party life

“I belong to the opposition party, which is called life.”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

poverty cease avarice begin greed

“Where poverty ceases, avarice begins.”

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

rule poor generous

"As a rule, only the poor are generous."

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

people claim coffee inspire boring

"Many people claim coffee inspires them, but, as everybody knows, coffee only makes boring people even more boring."

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

cruelty fear shake hands together

"Cruelty and fear shake hands together."

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

old maids bent temper life mania

"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."

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

courage easy rare teacher repeat lesson rreward

"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."

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

talent flame genius fire

"Talent is a flame, but genius is a fire"

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

old men prone invest future young sorrow

"Old men are prone to invest the futures of young men with their own past sorrows."

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

doubt power

"When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt."

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

natural destroy possess deny understand insult envy

"How natural it is to destroy what we cannot possess, to deny what we do not understand, and to insult what we envy!"

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

two histories official lying secret real causes events

"There are two histories : official history, lying, and then secret history, where you find the real causes of events."

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

human power time patience

"All human power is a compound of time and patience."

― Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)