Honore de Balzac

All human power is a compound of time and patience.

The duration of passion is proportionate with the original resistance of the woman.

No man should marry before he has studied anatomy and dissected the body of a woman.

Behind every great fortune there is a crime.

Behind every great fortune there is a crime.

First love is a kind of vaccination which saves a man from catching the complaint a second time.

The motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one.

Imagination helps bring out the realism of every detail and only sees the beauties of the work.

Nothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that he is superior to the other.

First love is a kind of vaccination which saves a man from catching the complaint a second time.

This coffee plunges into the stomach...the mind is aroused, and ideas pour forth like the battalions of the Grand Army on the field of battle.... Memories charge at full gallop...the light cavalry of comparisons deploys itself magnificently; the artillery of logic hurry in with their train of ammunition; flashes of wit pop up like sharp-shooters.

Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.

All humanity is passion; without passion, religion, history, novels, art would be ineffectual.

Nothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that he is superior to the other.

Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.

I am a galley slave to pen and ink.

- Honore de Balzac