Stendhal

Man is not free to refuse to do the thing which gives him more pleasure than any other conceivable action.

— Stendhal

Life is very short, and it ought not to be spent crawling at the feet of miserable scoundrels.

— Stendhal

Far less envy in America than in France, and far less wit.

— Stendhal

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

— Stendhal

Any man who talks about his love affairs thereby proves he is ignorant of love and is moved only by vanity.

— Stendhal

When a man leaves his mistress, he runs the risk of being betrayed two or three times daily.

— Stendhal

After moral poisoning, one requires physical remedies and a bottle of champagne.

— Stendhal

In our calling, we have to choose; we must make our fortune either in this world or in the next, there is…

— Stendhal

An English traveller relates how he lived upon intimate terms with a tiger; he had reared it and used to play with…

— Stendhal

“¡Quién iba a decirme que yo iba a encontrar placer en llorar! ¡Que yo iba a sentir cariño por quien precisamente me…

— Stendhal

To be loved at first sight, a man should have at the same time something to respect and something to pity in…

— Stendhal

“She phrased it masterfully, displaying a steadiness that was acting as if it were struggling to wrap itself in politeness.”

— Stendhal

War was then no longer this noble and unified outburst of souls in love with glory that he had imagined from Napoleon's…

— Stendhal

“Realitatea i se paru plata si murdara; e de inteles sa nu iti placa sa o privesti dar atunci nici nu iti…

— Stendhal

Politics in a literary work, is like a gun shot in the middle of a concert, something vulgar, and however, something which…

— Stendhal

“Could anything possibly be more humorous than believing in the depth or in the depravity of the Parisian character?”

— Stendhal

“…All right, two mornings from now I’ll fight a duel with a fellow known for his calm collectedness and remarkable skill…’Very remarkable,’…

— Stendhal

It is not enough for a landscape to be interesting in itself. Eventually there must be a moral and historic interest.

— Stendhal

Every great action is extreme when it is undertaken. Only after it has been accomplished does it seem possible to those creatures…

— Stendhal

The more a race is governed by its passions, the less it has acquired the habit of cautious and reasoned argument, the…

— Stendhal

Love is a well from which we can drink only as much as we have put in, and the stars that shine…

— Stendhal

A woman of generous character will sacrifice her life a thousand times over for her lover, but will break with him for…

— Stendhal

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

— Stendhal

In matters of sentiment, the public has very crude ideas; and the most shocking fault of women is that they make the…

— Stendhal