The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent.
STENDHALBeauty is nothing other than the promise of happiness.
More Stendhal Quotes
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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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Great ladies are no more spiteful than the average rich woman; but one acquires in their society a greater susceptibility, and feels more profoundly andmore irremediably, their unpleasant remarks.
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Logic is neither an art nor a science but a dodge.
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Indeed, man has two different beings inside him. What devil thought of that malicious touch?
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I do not feel I have wisdom enough yet to love what is ugly.
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It is not enough for a landscape to be interesting in itself. Eventually there must be a moral and historic interest.
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When you want to court a woman, court her sister first
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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.
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Who knows whether it is not true that phosphorus and mind are not the same thing?
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The great majority of men, especially in France, both desire and possess a fashionable woman, much in the way one might own a fine horse – as a luxury befitting a young man.
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To seem sorrowful is not in good taste: You’re supposed to seem bored.
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The more one pleases everybody, the less one pleases profoundly.
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Man is not free to refuse to do the thing which gives him more pleasure than any other conceivable action.
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All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few.
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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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