Stendhal Quotes

Beauty is the promise of happiness.

Your career will be a painful one. I divine something in you which offends the vulgar.

The lover thinks oftener of reaching his mistress than the husband thinks of guarding his wife; the prisoner thinks more often of escape than the jailer thinks of locking the doors. Therefore, in spite of every obstacle, the lover and the prisoner are certain to succeed.

The pleasures of love are always in proportion to our fears.

Love is like a fever which comes and goes quite independently of the will

Prestige! Sir, is it nothing? To be revered by fools, gaped at by children, envied by the rich and scorned by the wise.

"I think being condemned to death is the only real distinction," said Mathilde. "It is the only thing which cannot be bought."

Misery destroys judgment.

La seule excuse de Dieu c'est de ne pas exister.

For the future, I shall rely only upon those elements of my character which I have tested. Who would ever have said that I should find pleasure in shedding tears? That I should love the man who proves to me that I am nothing more than a fool?

The more one pleases generally, the less one pleases profoundly.

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

To write a book is to risk being shot at in public.

I cannot provide the reality of events, I can only convey their shadow.

Je ne veux désormais collectionner que les moments de bonheur.