He [Napoleon] had the defect of all <i>parvenus</i> — that of having too great an opinion of the class into which he had risen. - Stendhal

(Le Centre du Lac) … et le hardi promontoire qui sépare les deux branches du lac, celle de Come, si voluptuense et celle qui court vers Lecco, plein de sévérité; aspect sublime et gracieux, que le site le plus renommé du monde, la baie de Naples, égale, mais ne surpasse point...

C'est à coups de mépris public qu'un mari tue sa femme au XIXe siècle; c'est en lui fermant tous les salons.

He wished me dead. It did not occur to me any more to become angry or to venerate him less than it did to blaspheme against the sun when it's covered by a cloud.