145 quotes
For passion, be it observed, brings insight with it; it can give a sort of intelligence to simpletons, fools, and idiots, especially during youth.
Also, they had to forget both their misery and their thought which doubled the misery.
Lost Illusions (1837)
Power is action, and the elective principle is discussion.There is no policy, no statesmanship possible where discussion is permanent.
The habits of life form the soul, and the soul forms the physical presence.
The Vicar of Tours (1832)
But does not happiness come from the soul within?
The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831)
But reason always cuts a poor figure beside sentiment; the one being essentially restricted, like everything that is positive, while the other is infinite.
A Woman of Thirty (1842)
If we study Nature attentively in its great evolutions as in its minutest works, we cannot fail to recognize the possibility of enchantment — giving to that word its exact significance.
Séraphîta (1835)
Persons without minds are like bad weeds that delight in good earth; they want to be amused by others, all the more because they are dull within.
What is Art, monsieur, but Nature concentrated?
Lost Illusions (1837)
Virtue, my pet, is an abstract idea, varying in its manifestations with the surroundings. Virtue in Provence, in Constantinople, in London, and in Paris bears very different fruit, but is none the less virtue.
Letters of Two Brides (1841)
Musicians are seldom unemotional; a woman who could sing like that must know how to love indeed.
The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831)
My further advice on your relations to women is based upon that other motto of chivalry, "Serve all, love one."
The Lily of the Valley (1835)
Lovers have a way of using this word "nothing" which implies exactly the opposite.
A Daughter of Eve (1839)
A mother’s happiness is like a beacon, lighting up the future but reflected also on the past in the guise of fond memories.
Letters of Two Brides (1841)
Death unites as well as separates; it silences all paltry feeling.
Letters of Two Brides (1841)
The man as he converses is the lover; silent, he is the husband.
Letters of Two Brides (1841)
The virtue of women is perhaps a question of temperament.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)
A young man is to crime what a penny is to the X.
The Atheist's Mass (1836)
A mother, who is really a mother, is never free.
Letters of Two Brides (1841)
A man is a poor creature compared to a woman.
A Daughter of Eve (1839)