Life is too short, and the time we waste in yawning never can be regained.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
The great majority of men, especially in France, both desire and possess a fashionable woman, much in the way one might own a fine horse—as a luxury befitting a young man.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Men & Women
A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Love
Far less envy in America than in France, and far less wit.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Wit, One liners
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 (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Mathematics allows for no hypocrisy and no vagueness
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: One liners, Hypocrisy
The man of genius is he and he alone who finds such joy in his art that he will work at it come hell or high water.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Genius
Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Beauty is the promise of happiness.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Happiness, Beauty
Nothing is so hideous as an obsolete fashion.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Fashion
Since I am a man, my heart is three or four times less sensitive, because I have three or four times as much power of reason and experience of the world—a thing which you women call hard-heartedness. As a man, I can take refuge in having mistresses. The more of them I have, and the greater the scandal, the more I acquire reputation and brilliance in society.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Men
The only unhappiness is a life of boredom.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Boredom
People happy in love have an air of intensity.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Logic is neither an art nor a science but a dodge
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Logic
Every great action is extreme when it is undertaken.
Only after it has been accomplished does it seem
possible to those creatures of more common stuff.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Action
Pleasure is often spoiled by describing it.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Pleasure
Women are always eagerly on the lookout for any emotion
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Women
A novel is a mirror carried along a main road.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Reading, Books
One can acquire everything in solitude but character.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Solitude
True love makes the thought of death frequent, easy, without terrors; it merely becomes the standard of comparison, the price one would pay for many things.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Love
I think no woman I have had ever gave me so sweet a moment, or at so light a price, as the moment I owe to a newly heard musical phrase.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Music
The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Leaders, Vision, Leadership
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 (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Love
To describe happiness is to diminish it.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Happiness
Only great minds can afford a simple style.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Fashion, One liners
The great majority of men, especially in France, both desire and possess a fashionable woman, much in the way one might own a fine horse—as a luxury befitting a young man.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Luxury, Men and Women
All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Religion
A wise woman never yields by appointment. It should always be an unforeseen happiness.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
Topics: Seduction
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand French Writer, Statesman
- Henri de Montherlant French Essayist, Novelist, Dramatist
- Honore de Balzac French Novelist
- Gustave Flaubert French Novelist
- Guy de Maupassant French Short-story Writer
- Octave Mirbeau French Author
- Andre Gide French Novelist
- Denis Diderot French Philosopher, Writer
- Albert Camus Algerian-born French Philosopher
- Emile Zola French Novelist
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