One can imagine the look the two lovers exchanged; it was like a flame, for virtuous lovers have not a shred of hypocrisy.
Honore De BalzacRead
Old maids, having never bent their temper or their lives to other lives and other tempers, as woman's destiny requires, have for the most part a mania for making everything about them bend to them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that women who remain single often develop a self-centered attitude due to not having to adapt to others in their lives.
In this quote, Balzac reflects on the lives of women who have not conformed to societal expectations of marriage and partnership. He suggests that their independence and lack of compromise can lead to a tendency to expect the world around them to cater to their desires, highlighting both the struggles of traditional roles and the potential consequences of independence.
Themes
IndependenceRelationshipsSingleSelf-CenteredWomanManipulation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about modern relationships and the challenges of independent living.
More from Honore De Balzac
All quotes →Loyalty in time of need is possibly one of the noblest of victories a courtier can win over himself.
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Marriage must incessantly contend with a monster that devours everything: familiarity.
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Who is to decide which is the grimmer sight: withered hearts, or empty skulls?
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However gross a man may be, the minute he expresses a strong and genuine affection, some inner secretion alters his features, animates his gestures, and colors his voice. The stupidest man will often, under the stress of passion, achieve heights of eloquence, in thought if not in language, and seem to move in some luminous sphere. Goriot's voice and gesture had at this moment the power of communication that characterizes the great actor. Are not our finer feelings the poems of the human will?
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Love is a religion, and its rituals cost more than those of other religions. It goes by quickly and, like a street urchin, it likes to mark its passage by a trail of devastation.
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