A melancholy air can never be the right thing; what you wan… - Stendhal

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A melancholy air can never be the right thing; what you want is a bored air. If you are melancholy, it must be because you want something, there is something in which you have not succeeded.
It is shewing your inferiority. If you are bored, on the other hand, it is the person who has tried in vain to please you who is inferior.

Stendhal

The Red and the Black · 2002 Verified in 1 source Sign up to see the complete provenance

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About Stendhal

Marie-Henri Beyle (January 23, 1783 – March 23, 1842), more widely known as Stendhal, the most famous of his many pen-names, was a 19th century French writer.

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Also Known As

Pen Names: Henri Stendhal • Stendalis • Louis Alexandre Bombet • Anastase de Serpière • Don Flegme • William Crocodile • Dominique

Alternative Names: Henri Beyle • Marie Henri Beyle • Marie-Henri Beyle

All quotes from Stendhal Similar Quotes by other Originators

Originators like Stendhal:

Honoré de Balzac George Sand Oscar Wilde William Somerset Maugham Molière

Additional quotes by Stendhal

Coming back here often (on Lake Como) is like a drop of poison; it makes you want to never leave.

Leave me with my life of the imagination. Your petty pestering, your details of real life, which all upset me to some degree, would drag me down from heaven. Each person dies as best he may; my wish is not to think of death except in my own way.

Il [le jeune pianiste] avait appris à admirer tel morceau, la première qualité était toujours, dans un son, d'être juste, dans une phrase, d'être correcte. À mes yeux, la première qualité, de bien loin, est d'être expressif.

A melancholy air can never be the right thing; what you want is a bored air. If you are melancholy, it must be because you want something, there is s… - Stendhal

About Stendhal

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Additional quotes by Stendhal