Stendhal - Life Quotes

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Faith, I am no such fool; everyone for himself in this desert of selfishness which is called life.

Stendhal
A woman of generous character will sacrifice her life a thousand times over for her lover, but will break with him for ever over a question of pride.

Stendhal
Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us. To know men thoroughly, to judge events sanely, is, therefore, a great step towards happiness.

Stendhal
Love has always been the most important business in my life; I should say the only one.

Stendhal
Were I to buy this life of pleasure and this only chance at happiness with a few little dangers, where would be the harm? And wouldn't it still be fortunate to find a weak excuse to give her proof of my love?

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

Stendhal
A strange effect of marriage, such as the nineteenth century has made it! The boredom of married life inevitably destroys love, when love has preceded marriage. And yet, as a philosopher has observed, it speedily brings about, among people who are rich enough not to have to work, an intense boredom with all quiet forms of enjoyment. And it is only dried up hearts, among women, that it does not predispose to love.

Stendhal
People are less self-conscious in the intimacy of family life and during the anxiety of a great sorrow. The dazzling varnish of anextreme politeness is then less in evidence, and the true qualities of the heart regain their proper proportions.

Stendhal