Man is not free to refuse to do the thing which gives him more pleasure than any other conceivable action.
STENDHALThe worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.
More Stendhal Quotes
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Only great minds can afford a simple style.
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There are as many styles of beauty as there are visions of happiness.
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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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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.
STENDHAL -
Politics in a literary work, is like a gun shot in the middle of a concert, something vulgar, and however, something which is impossible to ignore.
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Your career will be a painful one. I divine something in you which offends the vulgar.
STENDHAL -
To be loved at first sight, a man should have at the same time something to respect and something to pity in his face.
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I am mad, I am going under, I must follow the advice of a friend, and pay no heed to myself.
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Power, after love, is the first source of happiness.
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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 -
Because one has little fear of shocking vanity in Italy, people adopt an intimate tone very quickly and discuss personal things.
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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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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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At a distance, we cannot conceive of the authority of a despot who knows all his subjects on sight.
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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