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A man who is half an idiot, but who keeps a sharp lookout and acts prudently all his life, often enjoys the pleasure of triumphing over men of more imagination than he.

Stendhal

I used to think of deathlike I suppose soldiers think of it: it was a possible thing that I could well avoid by my skill.
STENDHAL

Avoid Death Possible Skill Soldier Thinking
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
Man is not free to refuse to do the thing which gives him more pleasure than any other conceivable action.
STENDHAL

Action Freedom Man Pleasure Refusal
Far less envy in America than in France.
STENDHAL

Feeling Jealous Place
At a distance, we cannot conceive of the authority of a despot who knows all his subjects on sight.
STENDHAL

Authority Distance Sight Subject
A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.
STENDHAL

Born Degree Hope Love Small
Perhaps men who cannot love passionately are those who feel the effect of beauty most keenly; at any rate this is the strongest impression women can make on them.
STENDHAL

Feeling Impression Love Man Passion Woman
It is the nobility of their style which will make our writers of 1840 unreadable forty years from now.
STENDHAL

Noble Past Reading Style Time Writing
If you don’t love me, it does not matter, anyway I can love for both of us.
STENDHAL

Love Matter Myself Ourselves
Sometimes the impact of Mozart’s music is so immediate that the vision in the mind remains blurred and incomplete, while the soul seems to be directly invaded, drenched in wave upon wave of melancholy.
STENDHAL

Blurry Direct Impact Mindset Music Sadness Time Vision
In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can hope for in the future.
STENDHAL

Better Collection Future Hope Lost Love Passion Yourself
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
It is not enough for a landscape to be interesting in itself. Eventually there must be a moral and historic interest.
STENDHAL

Enough History Interest Moral
There are as many styles of beauty as there are visions of happiness.
STENDHAL

Beautiful Happiness Style Vision
One-half, the finest half, of life is hidden from the man who does not love with passion.
STENDHAL

Fine Hide Love Man Passion
One can acquire everything in solitude except character.
STENDHAL

Acquire Character Oneself Solitude

A man who is half an idiot, but who keeps a sharp lookout and acts prudently all his life, often enjoys the pleasure of triumphing over men of more imagination than he.

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A man who is half an idiot, but who keeps a sharp lookout and acts prudently all his life, often enjoys the pleasure of triumphing over men of more imagination than he.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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