Works of Honore de Balzac Quotes

“I do not share the belief in indefinite progress for society as a whole; I believe in man’s improvement in himself.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“one can no more hinder criticism than the use of eyes, tongues, and judgment.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“Events which seem to us dramatic are nothing more than subjects which our souls convert into tragedy or comedy according to the bent of our characters.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“The Oratorian boarding school in Vendôme, which Balzac was sent to at a young age.  It was a gruelling and miserable place to live, with severe monastic rules.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“The differences between a soldier, an artisan, a man of business, a lawyer, an idler, a student, a statesman, a merchant, a sailor, a poet, a beggar, a priest, are as great, though not so easy to define, as those between the wolf, the lion, the ass, the crow, the shark, the seal, the sheep, etc. Thus social species have always existed, and will always exist, just as there are zoological species.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Collected Works of Honore de Balzac with the Complete Human Comedy

“I come across journalists in theatre lobbies; it makes me shudder to see them. Journalism is an inferno, a bottomless pit of iniquity and treachery and lies; no one can traverse it undefiled, unless, like Dante, he is protected by Virgil’s sacred laurel.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“The region is a desert of stones, a solitude with a character of its own, an arid spot, which could only be inhabited by beings who had either attained to absolute nullity, or were gifted with some abnormal strength of soul.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“am fully convinced that it is impossible for a woman, even if she were born close to a throne, to acquire before the age of five-and-twenty the encyclopaedic knowledge of trifles, the practice of manoeuvring, the important small things, the musical tones and harmony of coloring, the angelic bedevilments and innocent cunning, the speech and the silence, the seriousness and the banter, the wit and the obtuseness, the diplomacy and the ignorance which make up the perfect lady.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“Laws are like spiders’ webs; the big flies get through, while the little ones are caught.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“In those days the blackest deeds were done in politics, to secure public opinion on one side or the other, to catch the votes of that public of fools which holds up hands for those that are clever enough to serve out weapons to them. Individuals are identified with their political opinions, and opponents in public life forthwith became private enemies.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“Mademoiselle des Touches (Camille Maupin) is George Sand in character, and the personal description of her, though applied by some to the famous Mademoiselle Georges, is easily recognized from Couture’s drawing.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“Why did the father of these poor girls, the Comte de Granville, a wise and upright magistrate (though sometimes led away by politics), refrain from protecting the helpless little creatures from such crushing despotism? Alas! by mutual understanding, about ten years after marriage, he and his wife were separated while living under one roof. The father had taken upon himself the education of his sons, leaving that of the daughters to his wife.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“Monsieur Guillaume naturally thought that this sinister personage had an eye to the till of the Cat and Racket. After quietly observing the mute duel which was going on between his master and the stranger, the eldest of the apprentices, having seen that the young man was stealthily watching the windows of the third floor, ventured to place himself on the stone flag where Monsieur Guillaume was standing. He took two steps out into the street, raised his head, and fancied that he caught sight of Mademoiselle Augustine Guillaume in hasty retreat”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“This short novel is the opening work of the Scènes de la vie privée, the first volume of La Comédie humaine.  The novella was originally entitled Gloire et Malheur (Glory and Misfortune) when it was written in 1829.  Published by Mame-Delaunay in the following year, it was followed by four revised editions. The final edition was published by Furne in 1842, appearing under the title of La Maison du chat-qui-pelote.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“The social state has freaks which Nature does not allow herself; it is nature plus society. The description of social species would thus be at least double that of animal species, merely in view of the two sexes. Then, among animals the drama is limited; there is scarcely any confusion; they turn and rend each other — that is all. Men, too, rend each other; but their greater or less intelligence makes the struggle far more complicated.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“The idea originated in a comparison between Humanity and Animality”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“And why should I not confess that this friendship, and the testimony here and there of persons unknown to me, have upheld me in my career, both against myself and against unjust attacks; against the calumny which has often persecuted me, against discouragement, and against the too eager hopefulness whose utterances are misinterpreted as those of overwhelming conceit? I had resolved to display stolid stoicism in the face of abuse and insults; but on two occasions base slanders have necessitated a reply. Though the advocates of forgiveness of injuries may regret that I should have displayed my skill in literary fence, there are many Christians who are of opinion that we live in times when it is as well to show sometimes that silence springs from generosity.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“In looking forward to what remains to be done, my readers will perhaps echo what my publishers say, “Please God to spare you!” I only ask to be less tormented by men and things than I have hitherto been since I began this terrific labor. I”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“It was no small task to depict the two or three thousand conspicuous types of a period; for this is, in fact, the number presented to us by each generation, and which the Human Comedy will require. This crowd of actors, of characters, this multitude of lives, needed a setting — if I may be pardoned the expression, a gallery. Hence the very natural division, as already known, into the Scenes of Private Life, of Provincial Life, of Parisian, Political, Military, and Country Life. Under these six heads are classified all the studies of manners which form the history of society at large, of all its faits et gestes, as our ancestors would have said.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“A woman of the world has a wonderful genius for diminishing her faults by laughing at them; she can obliterate them all with a smile or a question of feigned surprise, and she knows this. She remembers nothing, she can explain everything; she is amazed, asks questions, comments, amplifies, and quarrels with you, till in the end her sins disappear like stains on the application of a little soap and water; black as ink you knew them to be; and lo! in a moment, you behold immaculate white innocence, and lucky are you if you do not find that you yourself have sinned in some way beyond redemption. In a moment old illusions regained their”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“Is it not necessary, in order to produce the slightest change, that the most daring dreams of the past century become the most trite ideas of the present one?”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“Yes, for metals as for human beings, for plants as for men, life begins in an imperceptible embryo which develops itself.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“The common herd of humanity feels an involuntary respect for any person who can rise above it, and is not over-particular as to the means by which they rise.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“We may see by what happens in our own day how history is falsified at the very moment when events happen.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“THERE IS A general cry of paradox when scholars, struck by some historical error, attempt to correct it; but, for whoever studies modern history to its depths, it is plain that historians are privileged liars, who lend their pen to popular beliefs precisely as the newspapers of the day, or most of them, express the opinions of their readers.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“The most perennial and the best materialized of human ideas, the idea by which man reproduces himself by creating outside of himself the fictitious being called Property, that mental demon, drove its steel claws perpetually into his heart.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“She put all her pride and self-love into making him superior to herself, and not in ruling him. Hearts without tenderness covet dominion, but a true love treasures abnegation, that virtue of strength.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“SOCIETY PRACTISES NONE of the virtues it demands from individuals: every hour it commits crimes, but the crimes are committed in words; it paves the way for evil actions with a jest; it degrades nobility of soul by ridicule;”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“Never was a grander synthesis composed of natural effects or a more perfect idealization of nature. In a great national disaster, each one for a long time bewails himself alone; then, from out of the mass, rises up, here and there, a more emphatic and vehement cry of anguish; finally, when the misery has fallen on all, it bursts forth like a tempest.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac

“Men and events count for nothing,” said the Republican, following out his theory in spite of hiccoughs; “in politics, as in philosophy, there are only principles and ideas.” “What an abomination! Then you would ruthlessly put your friends to death for a shibboleth?”
― Honoré de Balzac, Works of Honore de Balzac