Quotes by Honore de Balzac

Modesty is the conscience of the body.

Envy is the most stupid of vices for there is no single advantage to be gained from it.

If we could but paint with the hand as we see with the eye!

A mother who is really a mother is never free.

Passion is universal humanity. Without it religion history romance and art would be useless.

Manners are the hypocrisy of a nation.

Emulation admires and strives to imitate great actions envy is only moved to malice.

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

True love is eternal infinite and always like itself. It is equal and pure without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.

All happiness depends on courage and work. I have had many periods of wretchedness but with energy and above all with illusions I pulled through them all.

Believe everything you hear said of the world nothing is too impossibly bad.

Our worst misfortunes never happen and most miseries lie in anticipation.

A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea.

Nobody loves a woman because she is handsome or ugly, stupid or intelligent. We love because we love.

True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.

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.

Love is the poetry of the senses.

Clouds symbolize the veils that shroud God.

Political liberty, the peace of a nation, and science itself are gifts for which Fate demands a heavy tax in blood!

A mothers happiness is like a beacon, lighting up the future but reflected also on the past in the guise of fond memories.