70 quotes found
“Have you ever plunged into the immensity of space and time by reading the geological treatises of Cuvier? Borne away on the wings of his genius, have you hovered over the illimitable abyss of the p...”
“Journalism, look you, is the religion of modern society.”
“The viscountess had raised the forefinger of her right hand and made a pretty gesture toward a stool at her feet. There was such intense tyrannical passion in the gesture that the marquis relinquis...”
“It is always assumed by the empty-headed, who chatter about themselves for want of something better, that people who do not discuss their affairs openly must have something to hide.”
“What 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...”
“Women are always true, even in the midst of their greatest falsities, because they are always influenced by some natural feeling.”
“Ah! What pleasure it must be to a woman to suffer for the one she loves!”
“Where some one else's welfare is concerned, a young girl becomes as ingenious as a thief. Guileless where she herself is in question, and full of foresight for me,--she is like a heavenly angel for...”
“Virtue will cut your head off, vice will only cut your hair.”
“The more he saw, the more he doubted. He watched men narrowly, and saw how, beneath the surface, courage was often rashness; and prudence, cowardice; generosity, a clever piece of calculation; just...”
“Love is the most melodious of all harmonies and the sentiment of love is innate. Woman is a delightful instrument of pleasure, but it is necessary to know its trembling strings, to study the positi...”
“Doing his utmost, deploying all his energy, a young man setting out from zero can wind up after ten years somewhere below where he started.”
“Was she acting entirely consciously? No: women are always sincere, even in the midst of their most shocking duplicities, because it is always some natural emotion which dominates them. Perhaps, hav...”
“He looked like some plant bleached by darkness.”
“Reading brings us unknown friends”
“Nothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that he is superior to the other.”
“Happy?" asked Aquilina, with dreadful look, and a smile full of pity and terror. "Ah, you do not know what it is to be condemned to a life of pleasure.”
“How did you get back?' asked Vautrin. 'I walked,' replied Eugene.'I wouldn't like half-pleasures, myself,' observed the tempter. 'I'd want to go there in my own carriage, have my own box, and come ...”
“Our heart is a treasury; if you pour out all its wealth at once, you are bankrupt.”
“No man should marry until he has studied anatomy and dissected at least one woman.”
