“ Every nature holds by a thread to those beings who challenge all human sentiments by concentrating all in one passion. Where is the man without desire? ”
Honoré de Balzac, Eugénie Grandet (1834). copy citation
| Author | Honoré de Balzac |
|---|---|
| Source | Eugénie Grandet |
| Topic | challenge passion |
| Date | 1834 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley |
| Weblink | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A9nie_Grandet |
Context
“but self-interest being to a certain extent compact and intelligent self-love, the visible sign of real superiority, it follows that self-love and self-interest are two parts of the same whole,—egotism. From this arises, perhaps, the excessive curiosity shown in the habits of a miser's life whenever they are put before the world. Every nature holds by a thread to those beings who challenge all human sentiments by concentrating all in one passion. Where is the man without desire? and what social desire can be satisfied without money?
Grandet unquestionably "had something on his mind," to use his wife's expression. There was in him, as in all misers, a persistent craving to play a commercial game with other men and win their money legally.”
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