Martin Svoboda favourite quotes (page 30)

“Equality may be a right, but no power on earth can convert it into fact.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

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.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

On porte encore moins facilement la joie excessive que la peine la plus lourde.
Part II, ch. L
Letters of Two Brides (1841-1842)

“Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

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.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

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

“Between the daylight gambler and the player at night there is the same difference that lies between a careless husband and the lover swooning under his lady’s window.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

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

“A young bride is like a plucked flower; but a guilty wife is like a flower that had been walked over.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

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

“A flow of words is a sure sign of duplicity.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

Qui parle trop veut tromper.
Part I, ch. VI.
Letters of Two Brides (1841-1842)

“True love is eternal, infinite, always like unto itself; it is equable, pure, without violent demonstration”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

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.
Context: 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.

“Kindness is not without its rocks ahead. People are apt to put it down to an easy temper and seldom recognize it as the secret striving of a generous nature; whilst, on the other hand, the ill-natured get credit for all the evil they refrain from.”

Honoré de Balzac book Une fille d'Ève

Source: A Daughter of Eve (1839), Ch. 3: The Story of a Happy Woman.

“Thought is a key to all treasures; the miser’s gains are ours without his cares.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831), Part I: The Talisman
Context: 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.

“Love is the most melodious of all harmonies and the sentiment of love is innate.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

Part I, Meditation V: Of the Predestined http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Physiology_of_Marriage/Part_1/Med_5.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)
Context: 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.

“Our heart is a treasury; if you pour out all its wealth at once, you are bankrupt.”

Honoré de Balzac book Le Pere Goriot

Part I.
Le Père Goriot (1835)
Context: 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.

“The poet doesn't invent. He listens.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

“Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

“Do not close the circle. Leave it open. Descartes closes the circle. Pascal leaves it open. Rousseau's triumph over the encyclopedists is to have left his circle open when they closed theirs.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

Diary of an Unknown (1988)

“I don't take art as seriously as politics.”

Orson Welles (1915–1985) American actor, director, writer and producer

“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.”

Orson Welles (1915–1985) American actor, director, writer and producer

“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities”

Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker

“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”

Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker

“Trust is the glue that holds everything together.”

Stephen R. Covey book First Things First

Source: First Things First (1994), p. 243 
Context: Trust is the glue that holds everything together. It creates the environment in which all of the other elements — win-win stewardship agreements, self-directing individuals and teams, aligned structures and systems, and accountability — can flourish.