by ·

Stendhal Quotes | Quotes said by Stendhal

  • Stendhal Quote #1

    A good book is an event in my life.


  • Stendhal Quote #2

    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 Quote #3

    A novel is a mirror walking along a main road.

  • Stendhal Quote #4

    A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love

  • Stendhal Quote #5

    A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.

  • Stendhal Quote #6

    A wise woman never yields by appointment. It should always be an unforeseen happiness.

  • Stendhal Quote #7

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

  • Stendhal Quote #8

    Ah, Sir, a novel is a mirror carried along a high road. At one moment it reflects to your vision the azure skies, at another the mire of the puddles at your feet. And the man who carries this mirror in his pack will be accused by you of being immoral! His mirror shews the mire, and you blame the mirror! Rather blame that high road upon which the puddle lies, still more the inspector of roads who allows the water to gather and the puddle to form.

  • Stendhal Quote #9

    All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few.

  • Stendhal Quote #10

    An English traveller relates how he lived upon intimate terms with a tiger; he had reared it and used to play with it, but always kept a loaded pistol on the table.

  • Stendhal Quote #11

    Certaines choses que Napoléon dit des femmes, plusieurs discussiions sur le mérite des romans à la mode sous son règne lui donnèrent alors, pour la première fois, quelques idées que tout autre jeune home de son age aurait eues depuis longtemps.

  • Stendhal Quote #12

    Chélan had acted as imprudently for Julien as he had for himself. He had given him the habit of reasoning correctly, and of not being put off by empty words, but he had neglected to tell him that this habit was a crime in the person of no importance, since every piece of logical reasoning is offensive.

  • Stendhal Quote #13

    For the future, I shall rely only upon those elements of my character which I have tested. Who would ever have said that I should find pleasure in shedding tears? That I should love the man who proves to me that I am nothing more than a fool?

  • Stendhal Quote #14

    Friendship has its illusions no less than love.

  • Stendhal Quote #15

    God's only excuse is that he does not exist

  • Stendhal Quote #16

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

  • Stendhal Quote #17

    I am mad, I am going under, I must follow the advice of a friend, and pay no heed to myself.

  • Stendhal Quote #18

    I think being condemned to death is the only real distinction, said Mathilde. It is the only thing which cannot be bought.

  • Stendhal Quote #19

    I will never demean myself to speak about my courage, said Julien, coldly, it would be mean to do so. Let the world judge by the facts.

  • Stendhal Quote #20

    If you don't love me, it does not matter, anyway I can love for both of us.

  • Stendhal Quote #21

    In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can hope for in the future.

  • Stendhal Quote #22

    In Paris, Julien’s position with regard to Madame de Renal would very soon have been simplified; but in Paris love is the child of the novels. The young tutor and his timid mistress would have found in three or four novels, and even in the lyrics of the Gymnase, a clear statement of their situation. The novels would have outlined for them the part to be played, shown them the model to copy; and this model, sooner or later, albeit without the slightest pleasure, and perhaps with reluctance, vanity would have compelled Julien to follow.

    In a small town of the Aveyron or the Pyrenees, the slightest incident would have been made decisive by the ardour of the climate. Beneath our more sombre skies, a penniless young man, who is ambitious only because the refinement of his nature puts him in need of some of those pleasures which money provides, is in daily contact with a woman of thirty who is sincerely virtuous, occupied with her children, and never looks to novels for examples of conduct. Everything goes slowly, everything happens by degrees in the provinces: life is more natural.

  • Stendhal Quote #23

    Indeed, man has two different beings inside him. What devil thought of that malicious touch?

  • Stendhal Quote #24

    Julien felt himself to be strong and resolute like a man who sees clearly into his own heart.

  • Stendhal Quote #25

    La politique au milieu des intérêts d'imagination, c'est un coup de pistolet au milieu d'un concert.

  • Stendhal Quote #26

    Life is too short, and the time we waste in yawning never can be regained.

  • Stendhal Quote #27

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

  • Stendhal Quote #28

    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 criticizes itself incessantly; so far from banishing thought, it is itself reared only upon a structure of thought.

  • Stendhal Quote #29

    Mathilde made an effort to use the more intimate form; she was evidently more attentive to this unusual way of speaking than to what she was saying. This use of the singular form, stripped of the tone of affection, ceased, after a moment, to afford Julien any pleasure, he was astonished at the absence of happiness; finally, in order to feel it, he had recourse to his reason. He saw himself highly esteemed by this girl who was so proud, and never bestowed unrestricted praise; by this line of reasoning he arrived at a gratification of his self-esteem.

  • Stendhal Quote #30

    Mathilde returned and strolled past the drawing-room windows; she saw him busily engaged in describing to Madame de Fervaques the old ruined castles that crown the steep banks of the Rhine and give them so distinctive a character. He was beginning to acquit himself none too badly in the use of the sentimental and picturesque language which is called wit in certain drawing-rooms.

You May Also Like

Recent Posts

Related Posts

0 comments:

Post a Comment