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I prefer thought to action, an idea to a transaction, contemplation to activity.

Honore de Balzac

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Honore de Balzac
Age: 52 †
Born: 1799
Born: May 20
Died: 1851
Died: August 19
Art Critic
Dramaturge
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Prosaist
Writer
Tours
France
Balzac
Horace de Saint- Aubin
Onoreh deh Balzaḳ
Lord R'Hoone
Ônôrē de Balzaq
Jeune ceélibataire
Onore de Balzak
Honorato De Balzac
H. Balzak
Honoreé De Balzac
H. Balzac
Horace de S.- Aubin
Honoriusz Balzac
Un Jeune ceélibataire
Lord O'Rhoone
Ūnūrīh dī Balzāk
R'Hoone
Onore de Bal'zak
Hônôrê đơ Banzăc
Honore de Balzak
de. Balzac
Transactions
Contemplation
Prefer
Activity
Idea
Action
Thought
Ideas
Transaction

More quotes by Honore de Balzac

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One of the most detestable habits of Lilliputian minds is to find their own littleness in others.
Honore de Balzac
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No woman has ever existed who did not know perfectly well in her heart what to expect from the superiority or inferiority of a rival.
Honore de Balzac
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Inspiration is the opportunity of genius.
Honore de Balzac
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Ideas devour the ages as men are devoured by their passions. When man is cured, human nature will cure itself perhaps.
Honore de Balzac
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Le mariage doit incessamment combattre un monstre qui de v ore tout: l'habitude. Marriage should always combat the monster that devours everything: habit.
Honore de Balzac
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A woman questions the man who loves exactly as a judge questions a criminal. This being so, a flash of the eye, a mere word, an inflection of the voice or a moment's hesitation suffice to expose the fact, betrayal or crime he is attempting to conceal.
Honore de Balzac
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Who shall ever tell how much an unmerited disfavor crushes a shy person? Who can ever depict the misfortunes of timidity?
Honore de Balzac
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It is as easy to dream a book as it is hard to write one.
Honore de Balzac
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A murderer is less loathsome to us than a spy. The murderer may have acted on a sudden mad impulse he may be penitent and amend but a spy is always a spy, night and day, in bed, at table, as he walks abroad his vileness pervades every moment of his life
Honore de Balzac
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When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt.
Honore de Balzac
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No man should marry until he has studied anatomy and dissected at least one woman.
Honore de Balzac
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For businessmen, the world is a bale of banknotes in circulation for most young men, it is a woman for some women, it is a man and for others it may be a salon, a coterie, a part of town or a whole city.
Honore de Balzac
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A penniless man who has no ties to bind him is master of himself at any rate, but a luckless wretch who is in love no longer belongs to himself, and may not take his own life. Love makes us almost sacred in our own eyes it is the life of another that we revere within us then and so begins for us the cruelest trouble of all.
Honore de Balzac
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Like most young people, these two attributed to the world their own intelligence and virtues. Youth who knows no failure has no mercy on the faults of other people but it has also a sublime faith in them.
Honore de Balzac
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A mother's happiness is like a beacon, lighting up the future but reflected also on the past in the guise of fond memories.
Honore de Balzac
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Necessity is the spur of genius.
Honore de Balzac
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Modern society includes three types of men who can never think very highly of the world--the priest, the physician, and the attorney-at-law. They all wear black, too, for are they not in mourning for every virtue and every illusion?
Honore de Balzac
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Carelessness in dressing is moral suicide.
Honore de Balzac
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The woman you buy takes a great deal of money. The woman who gives herself to you takes all your money.
Honore de Balzac
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A woman, even a prude, is not long at a loss, however dire her plight. She would seen always to have in hand the fig leaf our Mother Eve bequeathed to her.
Honore de Balzac