Balzac's most famous lines
The top 3 according to 5 votes from people: It's between the two of us now! · The secret of great fortunes with no apparent cause is a forgotten crime, because it was neatly done. · Laws are spider's webs through which the big flies pass and in which the little ones get caught.. (Updated Jan 25, 2026.)
'It's between the two of us now!', the forgotten crime behind great fortunes, glory as the sun of the dead: the most quoted lines from The Human Comedy, with the novel they come from, and the distorted version that goes round.
Automatically translated (original in Français). See the original
Top 13
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1
It's between the two of us now!
Father Goriot (1835), Rastignac facing Paris at the end of the novel.
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2
The secret of great fortunes with no apparent cause is a forgotten crime, because it was neatly done.
Father Goriot (1835), Vautrin.
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3
Laws are spider's webs through which the big flies pass and in which the little ones get caught.
The Firm of Nucingen (1838).
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4
Love is the only passion that tolerates neither past nor future.
The Chouans (1829).
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5
Despotism does great things illegally; liberty does not even bother to do very small things legally.
The Wild Ass's Skin (1831).
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6
Glory is the sun of the dead.
The Quest of the Absolute (1834).
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7
All the horrors that novelists think they invent always fall short of the truth.
Colonel Chabert (1832).
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8
We went looking for wool and we are coming back shorn.
The Chouans (1829).
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9
If light is the first love of life, is not love the light of the heart?
Eugénie Grandet (1833).
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10
Is not the fool the one who fails to justify the good opinion he has of himself?
The Country Doctor (1833).
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11
Self-love is a swindler who never misses his dupe.
The Old Maid (1836).
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12
In France, the most national thing of all is vanity.
The Collection of Antiquities (1839).
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13
Behind every great fortune there is a crime.
Distorted version that goes round: Balzac wrote Vautrin's line about the 'forgotten crime', not this one.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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