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 it… - Stendhal

The dinner was indifferent and the conversation irritating. "It's like the table of contents of a dull book," thought Julien. "All the greatest subjects of human thought are proudly displayed in it. Listen to it for three minutes, and you ask yourself which is more striking, the emphasis of the speaker or his shocking ignorance."

Un être à demi stupide, mais attentif, mais prudent tous les jours, goûte très-souvent le plaisir de triompher des hommes à imagination.

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?