Quotes from book
Une fille d'Ève

Honoré de Balzac Original title Une fille d'Ève (French, 1838)

Honoré de Balzac photo
Honoré de Balzac photo

“A man is a poor creature compared to a woman.”

Nous [les hommes] valons moins que vous
les femmes
Source: A Daughter of Eve (1839), Ch. 9: A Husband's Triumph

Honoré de Balzac photo

“The man whose action habitually bears the stamp of his mind is a genius, but the greatest genius is not always equal to himself, or he would cease to be human.”

L'homme qui peut empreindre perpétuellement la pensée dans le fait est un homme de génie; mais l'homme qui a le plus de génie ne le déploie pas à tous les instants, il ressemblerait trop à Dieu.
Source: A Daughter of Eve (1839), Ch. 3: The Story of a Happy Woman.

Honoré de Balzac photo

“Tyranny produces two results, exactly opposite in character, and which are symbolized in those two great types of the slave in classical times — Epictetus and Spartacus. The one is hatred with its evil train, the other meekness with its Christian graces.”

La tyrannie produit deux effets contraires dont les symboles existent dans deux grandes figures de l'esclavage antique: Epictète et Spartacus, la haine et ses sentiments mauvais, la résignation et ses tendresses chrétiennes.
Source: A Daughter of Eve (1839), Ch. 3: The Story of a Happy Woman.

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“Suicide, moreover, was at that time in vogue in Paris: what more suitable key to the mystery of life for a skeptical society?”

D'ailleurs, le suicide régnait alors à Paris; ne doit-il pas être le dernier mot des sociétés incrédules?
Source: A Daughter of Eve (1839), Ch. 7: Suicide.

Honoré de Balzac photo

“Girls brought up as you were, in a very strait-laced and puritan fashion, always pant for liberty and happiness, and the happiness they have never comes up to what they imagined. Those are the girls that make bad wives.”

Les filles élevées comme vous l'avez été, dans la contrainte et les pratiques religieuses, ont soif de la liberté, désirent le bonheur, et le bonheur dont elles jouissent n'est jamais aussi grand ni aussi beau que celui qu'elles ont rêvé. De pareilles filles font de mauvaises femmes.
Source: A Daughter of Eve (1839), Ch. 2: Sisterly Confidences.

Honoré de Balzac photo

“Lovers have a way of using this word "nothing" which implies exactly the opposite.”

Il y a une manière de dire ce mot rien entre amants, qui signifie tout le contraire.
Source: A Daughter of Eve (1839), Ch. 7: Suicide.

Honoré de Balzac photo

“Mothers with marriageable daughters ought to look out for men of this stamp, men with brains to act as protecting divinity, with worldly wisdom to diagnose like a surgeon, and with experience to take a mother’s place in warding off evil. These are the three cardinal virtues in matrimony.”

Les mères de famille devraient rechercher de pareils hommes pour leurs filles: l'Esprit est protecteur comme la Divinité, le Désenchantement est perspicace comme un chirurgien, l'Expérience est prévoyante comme une mère. Ces trois sentiments sont les vertus théologales du mariage.
Source: A Daughter of Eve (1839), Ch. 3: The Story of a Happy Woman.

Honoré de Balzac photo

“At fifteen, beauty and talent do not exist; there can only be promise of the coming woman.”

A quinze ans, ni la beauté ni le talent n'existent: une femme est tout promesse.
Source: A Daughter of Eve (1839), Ch. 5: Florine.

Honoré de Balzac photo

“This camaraderie (the word is a stroke of genius) corrodes the noblest minds; it eats into their pride like rust, kills the germ of great deeds, and lends a sanction to moral cowardice.”

Source: A Daughter of Eve (1839), Ch. 4: A Man of Note.
Context: This surface good-nature which captivates a new acquaintance and is no bar to treachery, which knows no scruple and is never at fault for an excuse, which makes an outcry at the wound which it condones, is one of the most distinctive features of the journalist. This camaraderie (the word is a stroke of genius) corrodes the noblest minds; it eats into their pride like rust, kills the germ of great deeds, and lends a sanction to moral cowardice.

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