Stendhal

Far less envy in America than in France.

— Stendhal

Every true passion thinks only of itself.

— Stendhal

God's only excuse is that he does not exist.

— Stendhal

A good book is an event in my life.

— Stendhal

What is really beautiful must always be true.

— Stendhal

Our true passions are selfish.

— Stendhal

When you want to court a woman, court her sister first

— Stendhal

The only unhappiness is a life of boredom.

— Stendhal

Napoleon was indeed the man sent by God to help the youth of France! Who is to take his place?

— Stendhal

Your career will be a painful one. I divine something in you which offends the vulgar.

— Stendhal

A novel is like a bow, and the violin that produces the sound is the reader's soul.

— Stendhal

Signs cannot be represented, in a spy's report, so damningly as words.

— Stendhal

Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us.

— Stendhal

Wounded pride can take a rich young man far who is surrounded by flatterers since birth.

— Stendhal

“An insane self-consciousness made him commit thousands of blunders.”

— Stendhal

This is the curse of our age, even the strangest aberrations are no cure for boredom.

— Stendhal

There is no such thing as "natural law": this expression is nothing but old nonsense... Prior to laws, what is natural is…

— Stendhal

The French are the wittiest, the most charming, and up to the present, at all events, the least musical race on Earth.

— Stendhal

The sight of anything extremely beautiful, in nature or in art, brings back the memory of what one loves, with the speed…

— Stendhal

Now that the steam engine rules the world, a title is an absurdity, still I am all dressed up in this title.…

— Stendhal

Perhaps men who cannot love passionately are those who feel the effect of beauty most keenly; at any rate this is the…

— Stendhal

The ordinary procedure of the nineteenth century is that when a powerful and noble personage encounters a man of feeling, he kills,…

— Stendhal

“Has he written to you?' 'He writes frequently.' 'Shew me his letters this instant, I order you'; and M. de Renal added…

— Stendhal

In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can…

— Stendhal

Conversationis like the table of contents of a dull book… All the greatest subjects of human thought are proudly displayedin it. Listen…

— Stendhal

The first characteristic of Rossini's music is speed - a speed which removes from the soul all the sombre emotions that are…

— Stendhal

Love born in the brain is more spirited, doubtless, than true love, but it has only flashes of enthusiasm; it knows itself…

— Stendhal

“The footman burst in, announcing, 'Monsieur le Duc de ---.' 'Hold your tongue, you fool,' said the Duke as he entered the…

— Stendhal

The pleasures and the cares of the luckiest ambition, even of limitless power, are nothing next to the intimate happiness that tenderness…

— Stendhal

Chélan had acted as imprudently for Julien as he had for himself. He had given him the habit of reasoning correctly, and…

— Stendhal

“They were completely vague. They expressed everything and nothing. 'It is the Æolian harp of style,' thought Julien. 'Amid the most lofty…

— Stendhal

“Oh, if there were only a true religion. Fool that I am, I see a Gothic cathedral and venerable stained-glass windows, and…

— Stendhal

“A novel is a mirror walking along a main road.”

— Stendhal

“Nebuniile acestea vă miră fără a vă cuceri.”

— Stendhal

One can acquire everything insolitude except character.

— Stendhal

Logic is neither an art nor a science but a dodge.

— Stendhal

Women are always eagerly on the lookout for any emotion.

— Stendhal

I love her beauty, but I fear her mind.

— Stendhal

Only great minds can afford a simple style.

— Stendhal

I have a bad memory for facts.

— Stendhal