The first virtue of a young man today – that is, for the next fifty years perhaps, as long as we live in fear, and religion has regained its powers – is to be incapable of enthusiasm and not to have much in the way of brains.
STENDHALEvery 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.
More Stendhal Quotes
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The worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.
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Only great minds can afford a simple style.
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Spring appears and we are once more children.
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Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us.
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If you don’t love me, it does not matter, anyway I can love for both of us.
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If you think of paying court to the men in power, your eternal ruin is assured.
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People happy in love have an air of intensity.
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Napoleon was indeed the man sent by God to help the youth of France! Who is to take his place?
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To describe happiness is to diminish it.
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The pleasures of love are always in proportion to our fears.
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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.
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The man of genius is he and he alone who finds such joy in his art that he will work at it come hell or high water.
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The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent.
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God’s only excuse is that he does not exist.
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Our true passions are selfish.
STENDHAL