Women, when they have made a sheep of a man, always tell him that he is a lion with a will of iron.
Honore de BalzacJournalists grow accustomed to seeing evil and they let it pass; they proceed to approve it, and they end by committing it themselves.
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