Envy lurks at the bottom of the human heart like a viper in its hole.

Balzac’s image casts envy as a hidden, instinctive danger: it lies low in the “bottom” of the heart, not always visible even to the person who harbors it, yet ready to strike when provoked. The viper metaphor emphasizes both secrecy and sudden harm—envy can remain dormant beneath civility, then surface as sabotage, bitterness, or moral corrosion. In Balzac’s broader social vision, private passions often drive public behavior; the line suggests that envy is not an occasional vice but a persistent human potential, especially in competitive societies where comparison is constant. The warning is psychological as well as ethical: self-knowledge requires looking into the “hole” where such impulses hide.