"As a rule, only the poor are generous. Rich people can always find excellent reasons for not handing over twenty thousand francs to a relative."
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Quote collection
Honore de Balzac quotes (page 7 of 34)
668 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Though the human heart may have to pause for rest when climbing the heights of affection it rarely stops on the slippery slope of hatred."
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"In intimate family life, there comes a moment when children, willingly or no, become the judges of their parents."
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"Paris, like every pretty woman, is subject to inexplicable whims of beauty and ugliness."
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"The habits of life form the soul, and the soul forms the physical presence."
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"If we could but paint with the hand what we see with the eye."
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"Numbers are intellectual witnesses that belong only to mankind."
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"Possibly the words materialism and spirituality express two sides of one and the same fact."
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"It is as easy to dream a book as it is hard to write one."
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"You may imitate, but never counterfeit."
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"They ended as all great passions do end - by a misunderstanding."
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"Small natures require despotism to exercise their sinews, as great souls thirst for equality to give play to their heart."
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"By dint of making sacrifices, a man grows interested in the person who exacts them. Great ladies, like courtesans, know this truth by instinct."
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"Do you know what is the hardest thing in life? To make a choice."
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"Passion is universal humanity. Without it religion, history, romance and art would be useless."
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"Our worst misfortunes never happen, and most miseries lie in anticipation."
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"When Religion and Royalty are swept away, the people will attack the great, and after the great, they will fall upon the rich."
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"Noble passions are like vices: the more they are satisfied, the greater they grow, Mothers and gamblers are insatiable."
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"I do not regard a broker as a member of the human race."
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"What patient can trust the knowledge of a physician without reputation or furniture, in a period when publicity is all-powerful and when the government gilds the lamp posts on the Place de la Concorde in order to dazzle the poor?"
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