Father Goriot

The little garden is no wider than the front of the house; it is shut in between the wall of the street and the partition wall of the neighboring house.

The kindness which knits two souls together is as rare, as divine, and as little understood as the passion of love, for both love and kindness are the lavish generosity of noble natures.

It is one of the most detestable habits of a Liliputian mind to credit other people with its own malignant pettiness.

Eugene, in the blind desperation that drives a young man to plunge deeper and deeper into an abyss, as if he might hope to find a fortunate issue in its lowest depths,

Mme. Vauquer alone can breathe that tainted air without being disheartened by it.

the picture of the house is completed by the portrait of its mistress.

If you set yourself to carry the heights of heaven, you must face God."

The human heart may find here and there a resting-place short of the highest height of affection, but we seldom stop in the steep, downward slope of hatred.

To sum it all up in a phrase, if they fail to smother genius in the mud, they fall on their knees and worship it. Corruption is a great power in the world, and talent is scarce.