Analytical Studies by Honoré de Balzac
page 60 of 665 (09%)
page 60 of 665 (09%)
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XVI. Manners are the hypocrisy of nations, and hypocrisy is more or less perfect. XVII. Virtue, perhaps, is nothing more than politeness of soul. Physical love is a craving like hunger, excepting that man eats all the time, and in love his appetite is neither so persistent nor so regular as at the table. A piece of bread and a carafe of water will satisfy the hunger of any man; but our civilization has brought to light the science of gastronomy. Love has its piece of bread, but it has also its science of loving, that science which we call coquetry, a delightful word which the French alone possess, for that science originated in this country. Well, after all, isn't it enough to enrage all husbands when they think that man is so endowed with an innate desire to change from one food to another, that in some savage countries, where travelers have landed, they have found alcoholic drinks and ragouts? Hunger is not so violent as love; but the caprices of the soul are |
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