Quotes from book
Physiology of Marriage

Name: Physiology of Marriage
Author: Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de BalzacOriginal title Physiologie du mariage (French, 1829)

“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.

“Who would not at the present moment wish to retain the persuasion that wives are virtuous? Are they not the supreme flower of the country? Are they not all blooming creatures, fascinating the world by their beauty, their youth, their life and their love? To believe in their virtue is a sort of social religion, for they are the ornament of the world, and form the chief glory of France.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

Qui ne voudrait pas rester persuadé que ces femmes sont vertueuses?Ne sont-elles pas la fleur du pays?Ne sont-elles pas toutes verdissantes, ravissantes, étourdissantes de beauté, de jeunesse, de vie et d'amour?Croire à leur vertu est une espèce de religion sociale; car elles sont l'ornement du monde et font la gloire de la France.
Part I, Meditation II: Marriage Statistics.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)

“The virtue of women is perhaps a question of temperament.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

La vertu des femmes est peut-être une question de tempérament.
Part I, Meditation IV, aphorism XIX.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)

“It is easier to be a lover than a husband, for the same reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day, than to say bright things from time to time.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

Il est plus facile d'être amant que mari, par la raison qu'il est plus difficile d'avoir de l'esprit tous les jours que de dire de jolies choses de temps en temps.
Part I, Meditation V: Of the Predestined, aphorism LXIX.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)

“A man ought not to marry without having studied anatomy, and dissected at least one woman.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

Un homme ne peut se marier sans avoir étudié l'anatomie et disséqué une femme au moins.
Part I, Meditation V: Of the Predestined, aphorism XXVIII.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)

“Do not therefore allow yourself to be led astray by the specious good nature of such an institution as that of twin beds.
It is the silliest, the most treacherous, the most dangerous in the world. Shame and anathema to him who conceived it.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

Ainsi ne vous laissez jamais séduire par la fausse bonhomie des lits jumeaux.
C'est l'invention la plus sotte, la plus perfide et la plus dangereuse qui soit au monde. Honte et anathème à qui l'imagina!
Part II, Meditation XVII, The Theory of the Bed, I: Twin Beds.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)

“The more a man judges, the less he loves.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

Plus on juge, moins on aime. Part I, Meditation VIII: Of the First Symptoms http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Physiology_of_Marriage/Part_1/Med_8, aphorism LX. Physiology of Marriage (1829)

“There are certain wives whose confinement makes sarcastic celibates smile.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

Il y a des femmes dont la grossesse fait sourire quelque célibataire sournois. Part I, Meditation II: Marriage Statistics http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Physiology_of_Marriage/Part_1/Med_2 Physiology of Marriage (1829)

“Power does not consist in striking with force or with frequency, but in striking true.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

La puissance ne consiste pas à frapper fort ou souvent, mais à frapper juste.
Part I, Meditation V: Of the Predestined, aphorism XLIII.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)

“The wife is a piece of property, acquired by contract; she is part of your furniture, for possession is nine-tenths of the law; in fact, the woman is not, to speak correctly, anything but an adjunct to the man; therefore abridge, cut, file this article as you choose; she is in every sense yours.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

La femme est une propriété que l'on acquiert par contrat, elle est mobilière, car la possession vaut titre; enfin, la femme n'est, à proprement parler, qu'une annexe de l'homme; or, tranchez, coupez, rognez, elle vous appartient à tous les titres.
Part II, Meditation Number XII: The Hygiene of Marriage.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)

“To be able to keep a mother-in-law in the country while he lives in Paris, and vice versa, is a piece of good fortune which a husband too rarely meets with.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

Avoir sa belle-mère en province quand on demeure à Paris, et vice versa, est une de ces bonnes fortunes qui se rencontrent toujours trop rarement.
Part III, Meditation XXV: Allies, Section II: Of the Mother-in-Law.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)

“Marriage is a fight to the death, before which the wedded couple ask a blessing from heaven, because it is the rashest of all undertakings to swear eternal love; the fight at once commences and victory, that is to say liberty, remains in the hands of the cleverer of the two.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

Le mariage est un combat à outrage avant lequel les deux époux demandent au ciel sa bénédiction, parce que s'aimer toujours est la plus téméraire des entreprises; le combat ne tarde pas à commencer, et la victoire, c'est-à-dire la liberté, demeure au plus adroit. Part I, Meditation I: The Subject http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Physiology_of_Marriage/Part_1/Med_1. Physiology of Marriage (1829)

“The most virtuous women have in them something that is never chaste.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

Les femmes les plus vertueuses ont en elles quelque chose qui n'est jamais chaste.
Part I, Meditation IV, aphorism XX.
Physiology of Marriage (1829)

“Manners are the hypocrisy of nations.”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

Les moeurs sont l'hypocrisie des nations. Part I, Meditation IV: Of the Virtuous Woman http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Physiology_of_Marriage/Part_1/Med_4, aphorism XVI. Physiology of Marriage (1829)

“To saunter is a science; it is the gastronomy of the eye. To take a walk is to vegetate; to saunter is to live…”

Honoré de Balzac book Physiology of Marriage

Part I, Meditation III: Of the Honest Woman http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Physiology_of_Marriage/Part_1/Med_3. Physiology of Marriage (1829) Context: To saunter is a science; it is the gastronomy of the eye. To take a walk is to vegetate; to saunter is to live… To saunter is to enjoy life; it is to indulge the flight of fancy; it is to enjoy the sublime pictures of misery, of love, of joy, of gracious or grotesque physiognomies; it is to pierce with a glance the abysses of a thousand existences; for the young it is to desire all, and to possess all; for the old it is to live the life of the youthful, and to share their passions.