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. - Stendhal

I sustained that a great part of Walter Scott's merit was owed to a secretary that drafted the descriptions of landscape in presence of nature. I found him how I find him now, weak in painting passion, in knowledge of the human heart. Posterity will confirm the judgement of contemporaries that places the Baronet Ultra immediately after Shakespeare.

The great drawback of being witty is that you have to keep your eyes fixed on the semi-idiots around you, and absorb their worthless sensations.

In a word, the very quality which made Julien into a superior being was precisely that which prevented him from savoring the happiness which was placed within his grasp.