The Physiology of Marriage, Part 2Balzac, Honoré de
General
The Physiology of Marriage, Part 2
Balzac, Honoré de
Marriage -- Humor
We offer the following maxims for your consideration:
We should despair of the human race if these maxims had been made
before 1830; but they set forth in so clear a manner the agreements
and difficulties which distinguish you, your wife and a lover; they so
brilliantly describe what your policy should be, and demonstrate to
you so accurately the strength of the enemy, that the teacher has put
his _amour-propre_ aside, and if by chance you find here a single new
thought, send it to the devil, who suggested this work.
LXV.
To speak of love is to make love.
LXVI.
In a lover the coarsest desire always shows itself as a burst of
honest admiration.
LXVII.
A lover has all the good points and all the bad points which are
lacking in a husband.
LXVIII.
A lover not only gives life to everything, he makes one forget life;
the husband does not give life to anything.
LXIX.
All the affected airs of sensibility which a woman puts on invariably
deceive a lover; and on occasions when a husband shrugs his shoulders,
a lover is in ecstasies.
LXX.
A lover betrays by his manner alone the degree of intimacy in which he
stands to a married woman.
LXXI.
A woman does not always know why she is in love. It is rarely that a
man falls in love without some selfish purpose. A husband should
discover this secret motive of egotism, for it will be to him the
lever of Archimedes.
LXXII.
A clever husband never betrays his supposition that his wife has a
lover.
LXXIII.
The lover submits to all the caprices of a woman; and as a man is
never vile while he lies in the arms of his mistress, he will take the
means to please her that a husband would recoil from.
LXXIV.
A lover teaches a wife all that her husband has concealed from her.
LXXV.
All the sensations which a woman yields to her lover, she gives in
exchange; they return to her always intensified; they are as rich in
what they give as in what they receive. This is the kind of commerce
in which almost all husbands end by being bankrupt.
LXXVI.
A lover speaks of nothing to a woman but that which exalts her; while
a husband, although he may be a loving one, can never refrain from
giving advice which always has the appearance of reprimand.
LXXVII.
A lover always starts from his mistress to himself; with a husband the
contrary is the case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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