“Those who spend too fast never grow rich.”
Qui dépense trop n’est jamais riche.
La Maison du Chat-qui-pelote http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_Maison_du_chat-qui-pelote [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket] (1830), translated by Clara Bell
“Our heart is a treasury; if you pour out all its wealth at once, you are bankrupt.”
Part I.
Le Père Goriot (1835)
Kontext: Our heart is a treasury; if you pour out all its wealth at once, you are bankrupt. We show no more mercy to the affection that reveals its utmost extent than we do to another kind of prodigal who has not a penny left.
“There is something great and terrible about suicide.”
Il existe je ne sais quoi de grand et d'épouvantable dans le suicide.
The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831), Part I: The Talisman
“Man dies in despair while the Spirit dies in ecstasy.”
Zdroj: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 3: Seraphita - Seraphitus.
Lorsque les femmes nous aiment, elles nous pardonnent tout, même nos crimes; lorsqu'elles ne nous aiment pas, elles ne nous pardonnent rien, pas même nos vertus!
La Muse du Département http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_Muse_du_d%C3%A9partement_-_II_-_34 (1843), translated by James Waring, part II, ch. XXXIV (part XIII in the translated version).
Le lys dans la vallée http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Lys_dans_la_vall%C3%A9e (1836), translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley, part II: First Love.
Kontext: 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.
Zdroj: A Daughter of Eve (1839), Ch. 3: The Story of a Happy Woman.
“Love is the most melodious of all harmonies and the sentiment of love is innate.”
Part I, Meditation V: Of the Predestined http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Physiology_of_Marriage/Part_1/Med_5.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)
Kontext: 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 position of them, the timid keyboard, the fingering so changeful and capricious which befits it.
“Thought is a key to all treasures; the miser’s gains are ours without his cares.”
The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831), Part I: The Talisman
Kontext: 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.
Une jeune fille est comme une fleur qu'on a cueillie; mais la femme coupable est une fleur sur laquelle on a marché.
Honorine http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Honorine (1845), translated by Clara Bell
Les jeunes filles se créent souvent de nobles, de ravissantes images, des figures tout idéales, et se forgent des idées chimériques sur les hommes, sur les sentiments, sur le monde; puis elles attribuent innocemment à un caractère les perfections qu'elles ont rêvées, et s'y confient.
Zdroj: A Woman of Thirty (1842), Ch. I: Early Mistakes.
“A flow of words is a sure sign of duplicity.”
Qui parle trop veut tromper.
Part I, ch. VI.
Letters of Two Brides (1841-1842)
“Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine.”
La solitude est certainement une belle chose, mais il y a plaisir d'avoir quelqu'un qui sache répondre, à qui on puisse dire de temps en temps, que c'est un belle chose. (Solitude is certainly a fine thing; but there is pleasure in having someone who can answer, from time to time, that it is a fine thing.) —Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, Dissertations chrétiennes et morales (1665), XVIII: "Les plaisirs de la vie retirée".
Misattributed
“When law becomes despotic, morals are relaxed, and vice versa.”
Quand le despotisme est dans les lois, la liberté se trouve dans les mœurs, et vice versa.
The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831), Part I: The Talisman
Entre le joueur du matin et le joueur du soir il existe la différence qui distingue le mari nonchalant de l'amant pâmé sous les fenêtres de sa belle.
The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831), Part I: The Talisman
“Equality may be a right, but no power on earth can convert it into fact.”
L'égalité sera peut-être un droit, mais aucune puissance humaine ne saura le convertir en fait.
La Duchesse de Langeais http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_Duchesse_de_Langeais (1834), translated by Ellen Marriage, part II.
“Excess of joy is harder to bear than any amount of sorrow.”
On porte encore moins facilement la joie excessive que la peine la plus lourde.
Part II, ch. L
Letters of Two Brides (1841-1842)
Letter to Evelina de Hanska (31 May 1837), translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley.
“Science is the language of the Temporal world, Love is that of the Spiritual world.”
Zdroj: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 3: Seraphita - Seraphitus.
Kontext: Science is the language of the Temporal world, Love is that of the Spiritual world. Thus man takes note of more than he is able to explain, while the Angelic Spirit sees and comprehends. Science depresses man; Love exalts the Angel. Science is still seeking, Love has found. Man judges Nature according to his own relations to her; the Angelic Spirit judges it in its relation to Heaven. In short, all things have a voice for the Spirit.