145 quotes
Does anyone know where these gondolas of Paris came from?
Physiologie du Mariage (1827)
Thought is a key to all treasures; the miser’s gains are ours without his cares. Thus I have soared above this world, where my enjoyments have been intellectual joys.
The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831)
God is the author, men are only the players. These grand pieces which are played upon earth have been composed in heaven.
Socrate Chrétien; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)
Peut-être veulent-elles [les femmes] un peu d'hypocrisie ?
The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831)
When women love, they forgive everything, even our crimes; when they do not love, they cannot forgive anything, not even our virtues.
Love has its own instinct, finding the way to the heart, as the feeblest insect finds the way to its flower, with a will which nothing can dismay nor turn aside.
A Woman of Thirty (1842)
True love is eternal, infinite, always like unto itself; it is equable, pure, without violent demonstration; white hair often covers the head, but the heart that holds it is ever young.
The Lily of the Valley (1835)
It is the mark of a great man that he puts to flight all ordinary calculations. He is at once sublime and touching, childlike and of the race of giants.
Letters of Two Brides (1841)
The more a man judges, the less he loves.
Hatred is a vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all their meanness, and make it a pretext for sordid tyranny.
The Muse of the Department (1843)
The wealthy obtain in Paris ready-made wit and science—formulated opinions which save them the need of having wit, science, or opinion of their own.
The Girl with the Golden Eyes (1833)
The fate of the home depends on the first night.
The Physiology of Marriage (1829)
It is easier to be a lover than a husband, for the same reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day, than to say bright things from time to time.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)
A man ought not to marry without having studied anatomy, and dissected at least one woman.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)
Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster which devours everything, that is, familiarity.
The Physiology of Marriage (1829)
And thus Bureaucracy, the giant power wielded by pigmies, came into the world.
The good we do to others is spoilt unless we efface ourselves so completely that those we help have no sense of inferiority.
Remorse is impotence, impotence which sins again. Repentance alone is powerful; it ends all.
Séraphîta (1835)
The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute.
Letters of Two Brides (1841)
The questioning spirit is the rebellious spirit. A rebellion is always either a cloak to hide a prince, or the swaddling wrapper of a new rule.