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date: 24 June 2025

Honoré de Balzac 1799–1850
French novelist 

  1. Man is neither good nor bad; he is born with instincts and abilities.
    La Comédie Humaine (1842) vol. 1, foreword
  2. Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.
    La Duchesse de Langeais (1834)
  3. Hatred is a tonic, it makes one live, it inspires vengeance; but pity kills, it makes our weakness weaker.
    La Peau de Chagrin (1831)
  4. Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu'il a été proprement fait.
    The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.
    often quoted as ‘Behind every great fortune lies a great crime’
    Le Père Goriot (1835)
  5. There is no infidelity when there has been no love.
    letter to Mme Hanska, August 1833