Top 104 Quotes by Honore de Balzac

True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.

Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence.

A lover always thinks of his mistress first and himself second; with a husband it runs the other way.

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

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.

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

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.

Lovers have a way of using this word, nothing, which implies exactly the opposite.

Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness.

A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea.