Stendhal Quotes

I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing.

Were I to buy this life of pleasure and this only chance at happiness with a few little dangers, where would be the harm? And wouldn’t it still be fortunate to find a weak excuse to give her proof of my love?

Here are my politics: I love music and painting; a good book is an event for me; I’m going on forty-four. How much time do I have left? Fifteen, twenty, thirty years at most? Very well! I maintain that in thirty years ministers will be a bit shrewder, but just about as honest as they are today.

The idea which tyrants find most useful is the idea of God.

...one of the traits of genius is not to drag its thought through the rut worn by vulgar minds.

But, if I sample this pleasure so prudently and circumspectly, it will no longer be a pleasure.

Sans travail, le vaisseau de la vie humaine n'a point de lest.

When one has just seen the woman one loves, the sight of every other woman damages the vision and physically hurts the eyes;

Comme on craint peu de choquer la vanité, on arrive fort vite en Italie au ton de l'intimité, et à dire des choses personnelles.

...duelul nu e decât o ceremonie. Totul e ştiut dinainte, chiar şi ce trebuie să spui când cazi. Întins pe iarbă, cu mâna pe inimă, trebuie să rosteşti cuvinte mărinimoase de iertare pentru adversar şi câteva fraze pentru o iubită imaginară, sau care în ziua morţii sale se duce la bal ca să nu trezească bănuielile.

Lussinge se moquait de mon insupportable orgueil quand je lui montrais ma haine [pour M. de Jouy] ; il en concluait que sans doute M. de Jouy ou M. Campenon avait fait une sanglante critique de quelques-uns de mes écrits. Un critique qui s'est moqué de moi m'inspire un tout autre sentiment. Je rejuge, à chaque fois que je relis sa critique, qui a raison de lui ou de moi.

A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love

He [Napoleon] had the defect of all parvenus — that of having too great an opinion of the class into which he had risen.

The pleasures and the cares of the luckiest ambition, even of limitless power, are nothing next to the intimate happiness that tenderness and love give. I am a man before being a prince, and when I have the good fortune to be in love my mistress addresses a man and not a prince.

Has he written to you?'
'He writes frequently.'
'Shew me his letters this instant, I order you'; and M. de Renal added six feet to his stature.