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118 Powerful Stendhal Quotes to Inspire You

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61. “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

Love, Death, Fear, Sacrifice, Emotion

62. “The pleasures of love are always in proportion to our fears.”

Stendhal

Love, Pleasure, Fear, Emotion, Passion

63. “The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent.”

Stendhal

History, Truth, Objectivity, Knowledge, Accuracy

64. “Leave me with my life of the imagination. Your petty pestering, your details of real life, which all upset me to some degree, would drag me down from heaven. Each person dies as best he may; my wish is not to think of death except in my own way.”

Stendhal

Imagination, Reality, Escape, Death, Solitude

65. “It was the destiny of Napoleon – would it one day be his?”

Stendhal

Destiny, Napoleon, Leadership, Fate, Power

66. “When one has just seen the woman one loves, the sight of every other woman damages the vision and physically hurts the eyes.”

Stendhal

Love, Devotion, Heartache, Emotion, Vision

67. “The idea which tyrants find most useful is the idea of God.”

Stendhal

Tyranny, Power, Religion, Control, Belief

68. “Love is when one sees the same world through different eyes.”

Stendhal

Love, Perspective, Connection, Understanding, Emotion

69. “Certain portions of our existence strike us as wrong, but we cannot put them right because we cannot conceive them as what they ought to be.”

Stendhal

Existence, Perception, Reality, Understanding, Change

70. “They can only touch the heart by bruising it.”

Stendhal

Heart, Pain, Emotion, Suffering, Love

71. “Old age is nothing but the absence of madness, the loss of illusion and passion.”

Stendhal

Old Age, Wisdom, Madness, Illusion, Experience

72. “The more a race is governed by its passions, the less it has acquired the habit of cautious and reasoned argument, the more intense will be its love of music.”

Stendhal

Passion, Reason, Argument, Music, Emotion

73. “What is really beautiful must always be true.”

Stendhal

Beauty, Truth, Authenticity, Perception, Aesthetics

74. “Mathematics allows for no hypocrisy and no vagueness.”

Stendhal

Mathematics, Truth, Logic, Precision, Knowledge

75. “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

Love, Thought, Passion, Self-Awareness, Emotion

76. “Such are death, life, eternity- simple phenomena for those with organs of sense vast enough to comprehend them.”

Stendhal

Life, Death, Eternity, Perception, Existence

77. “Our true passions are selfish.”

Stendhal

Passion, Selfishness, Human Nature, Desire, Emotion

78. “If I sample this pleasure so prudently and circumspectly, it will no longer be a pleasure.”

Stendhal

Pleasure, Caution, Moderation, Self-Control, Experience

79. “If you think of paying court to the men in power, your eternal ruin is assured.”

Stendhal

Power, Politics, Corruption, Influence, Danger

80. “Nothing is so odious to the mediocre as mental superiority. There lies the source of hatred in the world of today.”

Stendhal

Mediocrity, Intelligence, Hatred, Society, Superiority

81. “A web of chance, fate, and coincidence woven about her, which only a shallow thinker would call coincidence.”

Stendhal

Fate, Destiny, Coincidence, Perception, Belief

82. “Together with his fiery soul, Julien possessed one of those stunning memories so often linked to stupidity.”

Stendhal

Memory, Intelligence, Perception, Contrast, Character

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

Stendhal

Envy, Culture, Society, Comparison, Wit

84. “A novel is a mirror walking along a main road.”

Stendhal

Literature, Reflection, Life, Reality, Art

85. “The traveler who’s just climbed a steep mountain sits down at the top, and finds perfect pleasure in resting. Would he be as happy, if he were forced to do nothing but rest?”

Stendhal

Rest, Achievement, Happiness, Effort, Balance

86. “Prestige! Sir, is it nothing? To be revered by fools, gaped at by children, envied by the rich and scorned by the wise.”

Stendhal

Prestige, Fame, Power, Perception, Vanity

87. “The happiest times of those who enjoy the most are those when they lose themselves in the act of giving pleasure to others.”

Stendhal

Happiness, Generosity, Pleasure, Life, Fulfillment

88. “The French are the wittiest, the most charming, and up to the present, at all events, the least musical race on Earth.”

Stendhal

France, Wit, Charm, Culture, Music

89. “The highest rational achievement of the finest intellects consists in grasping that certain matters lie beyond their powers to grasp.”

Stendhal

Intelligence, Knowledge, Wisdom, Limits, Philosophy

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

Stendhal

Religion, Fear, Power, Society, Belief

118 Powerful Stendhal Quotes to Inspire You

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