Quote by Honoré de Balzac: “Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.”

This quote suggests that immense wealth often has a dark origin, implying that powerful people might have committed unjust acts or exploited others to accumulate their riches. It makes you question the morality behind vast fortunes.

Balzac wrote during a period of rapid industrialization and social upheaval in France, where new money was being made quickly, often through questionable means, challenging traditional aristocratic power structures. His novels critiqued the avarice and moral decay he observed.

French novelist whose vast series of linked novels and stories, collectively titled La Comédie Humaine, attempted to capture the full breadth of French society in the early nineteenth century. His work influenced nearly every major realist writer who followed him.