Stendhal Quotes

Certaines choses que Napoléon dit des femmes, plusieurs discussiions sur le mérite des romans à la mode sous son règne lui donnèrent alors, pour la première fois, quelques idées que tout autre jeune home de son age aurait eues depuis longtemps.

It is because I was foolish then that I am now wise. O philosopher who see nothing save in a flash, how short is your vision! Your eye is not made to follow the underground working of the passions. FRAU VON GOETHE This

Mathilde made an effort to use the more intimate form; she was evidently more attentive to this unusual way of speaking than to what she was saying. This use of the singular form, stripped of the tone of affection, ceased, after a moment, to afford Julien any pleasure, he was astonished at the absence of happiness; finally, in order to feel it, he had recourse to his reason. He saw himself highly esteemed by this girl who was so proud, and never bestowed unrestricted praise; by this line of reasoning he arrived at a gratification of his self-esteem.

Dupa ce-l invatase sa judece si sa nu se lase amagit de vorbe goale, uitase sa-i spuna ca, pentru un om de rand, obiceiul acesta e o crima; caci orice judecata sanatoasa jigneste.

Julien cherchait a ne pas s'exagerer cette cinguliere amitie. Il la comparait lui-meme a un commerce arme. Chaque jour en se retrouvant, avant de reprendre le tonpreque intime de la veille, on se demandait presque: Serons-nous aujourd'hui amis ou ennemis?

Old age is nothing but the absence of madness, the loss of illusion and passion.

No quiero que me carbonice el rayo, y como tú corres peligro de que Dios, cansado de tus impiedades, te abrase, me voy.

L’idée la plus utile aux tyrans est celle de Dieu,

Punish me for my atrocious pride,” she said to him, squeezing him in her arms as though to strangle him; “you are my master, I am your slave, I must beg pardon upon my knees for having sought to rebel.” She slipped from his embrace to fall at his feet. “Yes, you are my master,” she said again, intoxicated with love and joy; “reign over me for ever, punish your slave severely when she seeks to rebel.

In another moment she had torn herself from his arms, lighted the candle, and Julien had all the difficulty in the world in preventing her from cutting off all one side of her hair. “I wish to remind myself,” she told him, “that I am your servant: should my accursed pride ever make me forget it, show me these locks and say: “There is no question now of love, we are not concerned with the emotion that your heart may be feeling at this moment, you have sworn to obey, obey upon your honour.

La politique au milieu des intérêts d'imagination, c'est un coup de pistolet au milieu d'un concert.

"I will never demean myself to speak about my courage," said Julien, coldly, "it would be mean to do so. Let the world judge by the facts."

Oh, if there were only a true religion. Fool that I am, I see a Gothic cathedral and venerable stained-glass windows, and my weak heart conjures up the priest to fit the scene. My soul would understand him, my soul has need of him. I only find a nincompoop with dirty hair.

Love born in the brain is more spirited, doubtless, than true love, but it has only flashes of enthusiasm; it knows itself too well, it criticises itself incessantly; so far from banishing thought, it is itself reared only upon a structure of thought.

This man, whom great monarchies would have envied the prince of Parma, was known to have only one passion: of holding intimate conversations with great personages and currying favour by his buffoonery.