Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us. — Stendhal Copy Share Image
Love has always been the most important business in my life, I should say the only one. — Stendhal Copy Share Image
“In Paris, Julien’s position with regard to Madame de Renal would very soon have been simplified; but in Paris love is the… — Stendhal Copy Share Image
“An absence of mistrust is not enough; there must be a weariness of mistrusting, and, as it were, courage must be impatient… — Stendhal Copy Share Image
A man who is half an idiot, but who keeps a sharp lookout and acts prudently all his life, often enjoys the… — Stendhal Copy Share Image
The worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door. — Stendhal Copy Share Image
Why not make an end of it all?... My life is a succession of griefs and bitter feelings.... What is death?... A… — Stendhal Copy Share Image
Life is very short, and it ought not to be spent crawling at the feet of miserable scoundrels. — Stendhal Copy Share Image
A woman of generous character will sacrifice her life a thousand times over for her lover, but will break with him for… — Stendhal Copy Share Image
Faith, I am no such fool; everyone for himself in this desert of selfishness which is called life. — Stendhal Copy Share Image
A strange effect of marriage, such as the nineteenth century has made it! The boredom of married life inevitably destroys love, when… — Stendhal Copy Share Image
The boredom of married life inevitable destroys love, when love has preceded marriage. — Stendhal Copy Share Image
“Exalted by a sentiment of which she was proud, and that overcame all her arrogance, she was reluctant to let a moment… — Stendhal Copy Share Image
People are less self-conscious in the intimacy of family life and during the anxiety of a great sorrow. The dazzling varnish of… — Stendhal Copy Share Image
Life is too short, and the time we waste in yawning never can be regained. — Stendhal Copy Share Image
Any man who talks about his love affairs thereby proves he is ignorant of love and is moved only by vanity. — Stendhal Copy Share Image
One-half, the finest half, of life is hidden from the man who does not love with passion. — Stendhal Copy Share Image
At a distance, we cannot conceive of the authority of a despot who knows all his subjects on sight. — Stendhal Copy Share Image
The pleasures and the cares of the luckiest ambition, even of limitless power, are nothing next to the intimate happiness that tenderness and love… — Stendhal Copy Share Image
The more a race is governed by its passions, the less it has acquired the habit of cautious and reasoned argument, the more intense… — Stendhal Copy Share Image
The tyranny of public opinion (and what an opinion!) is as fatuous in the small towns of France as it is in the United… — Stendhal Copy Share Image
In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can hope for… — Stendhal Copy Share Image
“The footman burst in, announcing, 'Monsieur le Duc de ---.' 'Hold your tongue, you fool,' said the Duke as he entered the room. He… — Stendhal Copy Share Image
“If you think of paying court to those in power, your eternal ruin is assured.” — Stendhal Copy Share Image
Your career will be a painful one. I divine something in you which offends the vulgar. — Stendhal Copy Share Image
A forty-year-old woman is only something to men who have loved her in her youth. — Stendhal Copy Share Image
Perhaps men who cannot love passionately are those who feel the effect of beauty most keenly; at any rate this is the strongest impression… — Stendhal Copy Share Image