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Honore de Balzac

Honore de Balzac Quotes

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Famous Honore de Balzac Quotes

“Holding this book in your hand, sinking back in your soft armchair, you will say to yourself: perhaps it will amuse me. And after you have read this story of great misfortunes, you will no doubt dine well, blaming the author for your own insensitivity, accusing him of wild exaggeration and flights of fancy. But rest assured: this tragedy is not a fiction. All is true.”

WellsBookStoriesHandsFictionDoubtTragedyBlameFlightFancyNo DoubtMisfortunesAssuredExaggerationSinkingDineAccusingArmchairsInsensitivity
Author:Honore de Balzac
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“This coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the Grand Army of the battlefield, and the battle takes place. Things remembered arrive at full gallop, ensuing to the wind. The light cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the shafts of with start up like sharpshooters. Similes arise, the paper is covered with ink; for the struggle commences and is concluded with torrents of black water, just as a battle with powder.”

IdeasLightMovingFallBlackWaterStruggleWindBattlePaperLogicArmyTrainCoffeeAriseRememberedComparisonCoveredStomachMagnificentInkSimileBattlefieldsPowderCaffeineAmmunitionArtilleryCavalryDeploying
Author:Honore de Balzac
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“What moralists describe as the mysteries of the human heart are solely the deceiving thoughts, the spontaneous impulses of self-regard. The sudden changes in character, about which so much has been said, are instinctive calculations for the furtherance of our own pleasures. Seeing himself now in his fine clothes, his new gloves and shoes, Eugène de Rastignac forgot his noble resolve. Youth, when it swerves toward wrong, dares not look in the mirror of conscience; maturity has already seen itself there. That is the whole difference between the two phases of life.”

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Author:Honore de Balzac
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“However gross a man may be, the minute he expresses a strong and genuine affection, some inner secretion alters his features, animates his gestures, and colors his voice. The stupidest man will often, under the stress of passion, achieve heights of eloquence, in thought if not in language, and seem to move in some luminous sphere. Goriot's voice and gesture had at this moment the power of communication that characterizes the great actor. Are not our finer feelings the poems of the human will?”

IfsMenHumansMayMomentsFeelingsSeemsMovingPassionActorsLanguageStrongVoiceMinutesAchieveColorCommunicationStressAffectionGenuineFeaturesHeightSpheresGesturesGrossEloquenceLuminousGreat ActorsStupidestHuman Will
Author:Honore de Balzac
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