Quotes from A Woman of Thirty — Honoré de Balzac
1799–1850 France
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7 quotes
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)
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)
What is a child, monsieur, but the image of two beings, the fruit of two sentiments spontaneously blended?
A Woman of Thirty (1842)
The sanctity of womanhood is incompatible with social liberty and social claims; and for a woman emancipation means corruption.
A Woman of Thirty (1842)
Many men are deeply moved by the mere semblance of suffering in a woman; they take the look of pain for a sign of constancy or of love.
A Woman of Thirty (1842)
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.
A Woman of Thirty (1842)
Nothing is so discreet as a young face, for nothing is less mobile; it has the serenity, the surface smoothness, and the freshness of a lake. There is no character in women’s faces before the age of thirty.
A Woman of Thirty (1842)