balzac Quotes

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

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

“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.”

“Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster that devours everything: familiarity.”

“It is the mark of a great man that he puts to flight all ordinary calculations. He is at once sublime and touching, childlike and of the race of giants.”

“Small natures require despotism to exercise their sinews, as great souls thirst for equality to give play to their heart.”

“If we could but paint with the hand what we see with the eye.”

“Ideas devour the ages as men are devoured by their passions. When man is cured, human nature will cure itself perhaps.”

“Towns find it as hard as houses of business to rise again from ruin.”

“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.”