Remorse is impotence, impotence which sins again. Repentance alone is powerful; it ends all.
 Honoré de Balzac, Séraphîta (1834). copy citation

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Author Honoré de Balzac
Source Séraphîta
Topic power remorse repentance
Date 1834
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1432/1432-h/1432-h.htm

Context

“But neither his knowledge, nor his actions, nor his will, had found direction. He had fled from social life from necessity; as a great criminal seeks the cloister. Remorse, that virtue of weak beings, did not touch him. Remorse is impotence, impotence which sins again. Repentance alone is powerful; it ends all. But in traversing the world, which he made his cloister, Wilfrid had found no balm for his wounds; he saw nothing in nature to which he could attach himself. In him, despair had dried the sources of desire.” source
Original quote

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