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A woman of generous character will sacrifice her life a thousand times over for her lover, but will break with him for ever over a question of pride.

Stendhal

The more a race is governed by its passions, the less it has acquired the habit of cautious and reasoned argument, the more intense will be its love of music.
STENDHAL

Government Habit Music Passion Race Reason
True love makes the thought of death frequent, easy, without terrors; it merely becomes the standard of comparison, the price one would pay for many things.
STENDHAL

Comparison Death Love Pay Standard Thinking True
I see but one rule: to be clear.
STENDHAL

Clear Rule See
After moral poisoning, one requires physical remedies and a bottle of champagne.
STENDHAL

Alcohol Bottle Champagne Moral Physical Poison
Every great action is extreme when it is undertaken. Only after it has been accomplished does it seem possible to those creatures of more common stuff.
STENDHAL

Accomplishment Creature Extreme Greatness Possible
A novel is a mirror which passes over a highway. Sometimes it reflects to your eyes the blue of the skies, at others the churned-up mud of the road.
STENDHAL

Eyes Highway Mirror Novel Reflection Road
I have a bad memory for facts.
STENDHAL

Bad Fact Memories Myself
The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent.
STENDHAL

Ability History Invention Qualification
A very small matter, when all is said; only a fool would be concerned about it.
STENDHAL

Concern Fools Small Thinking
A wise woman never yields by appointment. It should always be an unforeseen happiness.
STENDHAL

Appointment Happiness Wisdom Woman
Nothing is so hideous as an obsolete fashion.
STENDHAL

Fashion Hide
If you think of paying court to the men in power, your eternal ruin is assured.
STENDHAL

Assurance Court Forever Man Pay Power Ruin Thinking
One can acquire everything in solitude except character.
STENDHAL

Acquire Character Oneself Solitude
If you want to be witty, work on your character and say what you think on every occasion.
STENDHAL

Character Occasion Thinking Work Yourself
She had caprices of a marvellous unexpectedness, and how is any one to imitate a caprice?
STENDHAL

Expectation Imitation Oneself
Our true passions are selfish.
STENDHAL

One Liner Ourselves Passion Selfish
The boredom of married life inevitable destroys love, when love has preceded marriage.
STENDHAL

Boredom Destroy Herself Marriage Youth
People happy in love have an air of intensity.
STENDHAL

Happiness Intensity Love People
I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing.
STENDHAL

Crumble Myself Rule See World
To be loved at first sight, a man should have at the same time something to respect and something to pity in his face.
STENDHAL

Face Himself Love Pity Respect Sight
One-half, the finest half, of life is hidden from the man who does not love with passion.
STENDHAL

Fine Hide Love Man Passion
Because one has little fear of shocking vanity in Italy, people adopt an intimate tone very quickly and discuss personal things.
STENDHAL

Fear Personal Quick Shock Thing
One of the traits of genius is not to drag its thought through the rut worn by vulgar minds.
STENDHAL

Drag Genius Mindset Thinking Vulgar
At a distance, we cannot conceive of the authority of a despot who knows all his subjects on sight.
STENDHAL

Authority Distance Sight Subject
The tyranny of public opinion (and what an opinion!) is as fatuous in the small towns of France as it is in the United States of America.
STENDHAL

Opinion Public Small Unity
A forty-year-old woman is only something to men who have loved her in her youth.
STENDHAL

Herself Love Man Woman Youth
Far less envy in America than in France.
STENDHAL

Feeling Jealous Place

A woman of generous character will sacrifice her life a thousand times over for her lover, but will break with him for ever over a question of pride.

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A woman of generous character will sacrifice her life a thousand times over for her lover, but will break with him for ever over a question of pride.

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