The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.
STENDHALWhen a man leaves his mistress, he runs the risk of being betrayed two or three times daily.
More Stendhal Quotes
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Logic is neither an art nor a science but a dodge.
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It is from cowardice and not from want of enlightenment that we do not read in our own hearts.
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The more one pleases everybody, the less one pleases profoundly.
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But, if I sample this pleasure so prudently and circumspectly, it will no longer be a pleasure.
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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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If you want to be witty, work on your character and say what you think on every occasion.
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Only great minds can afford a simple style.
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In matters of sentiment, the public has very crude ideas; and the most shocking fault of women is that they make the public the supreme judge of their lives.
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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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It is difficult to escape from the prevailing disease of one’s generation.
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To seem sorrowful is not in good taste: You’re supposed to seem bored.
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People who have been made to suffer by certain things cannot be reminded of them without a horror which paralyses every other pleasure, even that to be found in reading a story.
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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.
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Any man who talks about his love affairs thereby proves he is ignorant of love and is moved only by vanity.
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The sight of anything extremely beautiful, in nature or in art, brings back the memory of what one loves, with the speed of lightning.
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The worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.
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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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Politics in the middle of things of the imagination is like a pistol shot in the middle of a concert.
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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.
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God’s only excuse is that he does not exist.
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I see but one rule: to be clear.
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Power, after love, is the first source of happiness.
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Signs cannot be represented, in a spy’s report, so damningly as words.
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People are less self-conscious in the intimacy of family life and during the anxiety of a great sorrow. The dazzling varnish of an extreme politeness is then less in evidence, and the true qualities of the heart regain their proper proportions.
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Our true passions are selfish.
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Life is too short, and the time we waste in yawning never can be regained.
STENDHAL