“Conscience is a cudgel which all men pick up in order to thwack their neighbors instead of applying it to their own shoulders.” MenOrderPicksConscienceNeighborShoulders Author:Honore de Balzac
“Constancy will always be the genius of love, the indication of that strength which constitutes the poet. A man should possess all women in his wife, like those squalid poetasters of the seventeenth century who made fair Irises and dazzling Chloes of their lowly Manons.” MenShouldMadeWifeCenturyPoetGeniusFairsIndicationChloeConstancyDazzlingIrises Author:Honore de Balzac
“Women? In order to realize how far these charming creatures we idealize can carry their cruelty, we must see them among themselves!” OrderWomenRealizingCreaturesCrueltyCharming Author:Honore de Balzac
“Too great a display of delicacy can and does sometimes infringe upon de-cency.” DoeSometimesDisplayDecencyDelicacy Author:Honore de Balzac
“A deist is an atheist with an eye cocked for the off-chance of some advantage.” EyeChanceAdvantageAtheistDeist Author:Honore de Balzac
“Show me the woman, however loyal, who does not seek to rouse desire.” DoeShowsDesireLoyalShow Me Author:Honore de Balzac
“A woman in the depths of despair proves so persuasive that she wrenches the forgiveness lurking deep in the heart of her lover. This is all the more true when that woman is young, pretty, and so decollete as to emerge from the neck of her gown in the costume of Eve.” HeartYoungLoversProveDespairDepthNecksCostumesGownsPersuasiveLurkingWrenches Author:Honore de Balzac
“It is not hope but despair that gives us the measure of our ambitions. We may yield secretly to beautiful poems of hope but grief looms start and stripped of all veils.” GivingMayBeautifulGriefDespairAmbitionYieldVeils Author:Honore de Balzac
“Nothing is unimportant to a man plunged in despair. He is as credulous as a criminal sentenced to death who listens to a lunatic raving to him about how he can escape through the keyhole.” MenDespairCriminalsUnimportantLunaticKeyholes Author:Honore de Balzac
“Beauty is the greatest of human powers. Any power without counterbalance or control becomes autocratic and leads to abuse and to folly. Despotism in a government is insanity; in woman, fantasy.” HumansGovernmentBeautyPowerFantasyAbuseInsanityFollyDespotismHuman Power Author:Honore de Balzac