Honore de Balzac

“Power is action; the electoral principle is discussion. No political action is possible when discussion is permanently established.”

“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.”

“In diving to the bottom of pleasure we bring up more gravel than pearls.”

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

“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.”

“A flow of words is a sure sign of duplicity.”

“The duration of passion is proportionate with the original resistance of the woman.”

“Men die in despair, while spirits die in ecstasy.”

“Study lends a kind of enchantment to all our surroundings.”

“Thought is a key to all treasures; the miser's gains are ours without his cares. Thus I have soared above this world, where my enjoyment have been intellectual joys.”

“Women are tenacious, and all of them should be tenacious of respect; without esteem they cannot exist; esteem is the first demand that they make of love.”

“We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are.”

“At fifteen, beauty and talent do not exist; there can only be promise of the coming woman.”

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

“It is easier to be a lover than a husband for the simple reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day than to say pretty things from time to time.”

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

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

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

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

“Love or hatred must constantly increase between two persons who are always together; every moment fresh reasons are found for loving or hating better.”