Love has always been the most important business in my life; I should say the only one.
STENDHALNapoleon was indeed the man sent by God to help the youth of France! Who is to take his place?
More Stendhal Quotes
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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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There is no such thing as “natural law”: this expression is nothing but old nonsense… Prior to laws, what is natural is only the strength of the lion, or the need of the creature suffering from hunger or cold, in short, need.
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I do not feel I have wisdom enough yet to love what is ugly.
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All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few.
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To seem sorrowful is not in good taste: You’re supposed to seem bored.
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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.
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Signs cannot be represented, in a spy’s report, so damningly as words.
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Our true passions are selfish.
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It is with blows dealt by public contempt that a husband kills his wife in the nineteenth century; it is by shutting the doors ofall the drawing-rooms in her face.
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Beauty is nothing other than the promise of happiness.
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God’s only excuse is that he does not exist.
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To describe happiness is to diminish it.
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If you think of paying court to the men in power, your eternal ruin is assured.
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I see but one rule: to be clear.
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Spring appears and we are once more children.
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A novel is a mirror carried along a main road.
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One of the traits of genius is not to drag its thought through the rut worn by vulgar minds.
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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.
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Women are always eagerly on the lookout for any emotion.
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The idea which tyrants find most useful is the idea of God.
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The worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.
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If you want to be witty, work on your character and say what you think on every occasion.
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After moral poisoning, one requires physical remedies and a bottle of champagne.
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The English are, I think the most obtuse and barbarous people in the world
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Life is very short, and it ought not to be spent crawling at the feet of miserable scoundrels.
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I call “crystallization” that action of the mind that discovers fresh perfections in its beloved at every turn of events.
STENDHAL