Ashok Bania

“There is something noble as well as terrible about suicide. The downfall of many men is not dangerous, for they fall like children, too near the ground to do themselves harm. But when a great man breaks, he has soared up to the heavens, espied some inaccessible paradise, and then fallen from a great height. The forces that make him seek peace from the barrel of a gun cannot be placated. How many young talents confined to an attic room wither and perish for lack of a friend, a consoling wife, alone in the midst of a million fellow humans, while throngs of people weary of gold are bored with their possessions.”
― Honoré de Balzac, The Wild Ass's Skin

“There was a Door to which I found no Key
There was a Veil past which I could not see
Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE
There seemed--and then no more of THEE and ME.”
― Omar Khayyám

“Yes, I can understand that a man might go to gambling table - when he sees that all that lies between himself and death is his last crown”
― Honoré de Balzac, The Wild Ass's Skin

“Surely a man must be in a parlours state to excite pity, extremely weak to inspire sympathy, or very evil-looking to make a soul tremble in a den like this, where pain must hold its tongue, poverty remain cheerful, and despair retain its self respect.”
― Honoré de Balzac, The Wild Ass's Skin