"It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action."
"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."
3 likes
Source: A Daughter of Eve. Book by Honoré de Balzac, 1839.
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Honore de Balzac
"When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt."
"True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure."
"The more one judges, the less one loves."
"Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane."
"In diving to the bottom of pleasure we bring up more gravel than pearls."