"When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues.

The word 'love,' used in connection with the reproduction of our species, is the most odious blasphemy taught in our times.
~ Honoré de Balzac ~












The word 'love,' used in connection with the reproduction of our species, is the most odious blasphe...
Show MoreMore Honoré de Balzac quotes
"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 alway...
"The motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one.
"Wisdom is that apprehension of heavenly things to which the spirit rises through love.
"Marriage must fight constantly against a monster which devours everything: routine.
"Love is the most melodious of all harmonies and the sentiment of love is innate. Woman is a delightful instrument of pleasure, but it is necessary to ...
"Alas! Where love is concerned, self-interested deception is superior to the truth itself, which is why so many men pay so high a price to clever decei...
"for a woman knows the face of the man she loves like a sailor knows the open sea
"Man can start with aversion and end with love, but if he begins with love and comes round to aversion he will never get back to love.
"The more one judges, the less one loves.
"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.
"Was she acting entirely consciously? No: women are always sincere, even in the midst of their most shocking duplicities, because it is always some nat...
"A letter is a soul, so faithful an echo of the speaking voice that to the sensitive it is among the richest treasures of love.
"Of necessity she went further in aversion than she had gone in love, for her hatred was not in proportion to her love but to her disappointed hopes.
"Ah! What pleasure it must be to a woman to suffer for the one she loves!