Il est plus facile d'être amant que mari, par la raison qu'il est plus difficile d'avoir de l'esprit tous les jours que de dire de jolies choses de temps en temps." - Meaning and context.">
It is easier to be a lover than a husband, for the same reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day, than to say bright things from time to time.
 • Part I, Meditation V: Of the Predestined, aphorism LXIX
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Il est plus facile d'être amant que mari, par la raison qu'il est plus difficile d'avoir de l'esprit tous les jours que de dire de jolies choses de temps en temps.

— Honoré de Balzac

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Il est plus facile d'être amant que mari, par la raison qu'il est plus difficile d'avoir de l'esprit tous les jours que de dire de jolies choses de temps en temps." in the context of "It is easier to be a lover than a husband, for the same reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day, than to say bright things from time to time.
 • Part I, Meditation V: Of the Predestined, aphorism LXIX" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Honoré de Balzac" (Quotes, Physiology of Marriage (1829): Physiologie du Mariage. translated by Joseph Walker McSpadden. English text here.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Honoré de Balzac

About Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac (20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist. Along with Flaubert, he is generally regarded as a founding father of realism in European literature.