Honore de Balzac

“Political liberty, the peace of a nation, and science itself are gifts for which Fate demands a heavy tax in blood!”

“To those who have exhausted politics, nothing remains but abstract thought.”

“But reason always cuts a poor figure beside sentiment the one being essentially restricted, like everything that is positive, while the other is infinite.”

“Power is action the electoral principle is discussion. No political action is possible when discussion is permanently established.”

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

“Women are tenacious, and all of them should be tenacious of respect without esteem they cannot exist esteem is the first demand that they make of love.”

“There are some women whose pregnancy would make some sly bachelor smile.”

“Suicide, moreover, was at the time in vogue in Paris: what more suitable key to the mystery of life for a skeptical society?”

“Society bristles with enigmas which look hard to solve. It is a perfect maze of intrigue.”

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

“It is easier to be a lover than a husband for the simple reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day than to say pretty things from time to time.”

“A young bride is like a plucked flower but a guilty wife is like a flower that had been walked over.”

“Wisdom is that apprehension of heavenly things to which the spirit rises through love.”

“The most virtuous women have something within them, something that is never chaste.”