We do not attach ourselves lastingly to anything that has not cost us care, labor or longing.
Honore de BalzacA 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 BalzacLet nothing dupe you! Such is the horrible maxim that acts as a solvent upon every noble feeling man experiences.
Honore de BalzacWhat 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, Eugรจne 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.
Honore de Balzac