“The lover thinks oftener of reaching his mistress than the husband thinks of guarding his wife; the prisoner thinks more often of escape than the jailer thinks of locking the doors. Therefore, in spite of every obstacle, the lover and the prisoner are certain to succeed.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“ On the other hand in America, in the Republic, one has to spend the whole weary day paying serious court to the shopkeepers in the street, and must become as stupid as they are; and there, one has no Opera.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“Aşık sevgilisine ulaşmayı, kocasının karısını düşündüğünden daha sık düşünür; tutsak kaçıp kurtulmayı, gardiyan kapısını kapatmayı düşündüğünden daha sık düşünür, demek ki, engeller ne olursa olsun aşık ve tutsak başarılı olmalıdır.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“This beautiful thought, of 'dying close by that which one loves', expressed in a hundred different ways, was followed by a sonnet in which it was found that the soul, separated, after atrocious torments, from the frail body in which it dwelt for twenty-three years, and impelled by that instinct for happiness natural to all that has once existed, would not reascend to heaven to mingle with angelic choirs as soon as it was set free, and in the event of the awful judgment according it forgiveness for its sins, but, happier after death than it had been in life, it would go a few steps from the prison where it had lamented for so long, to be reunited with all that it had loved in the world. And thus, the sonnet's last line went. I shall have found my paradise on earth.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“Le bonheur le porta à une hauteur de pensées assez étrangère à son caractère; il considérait les événements de la vie lui, si jeune, comme si déjà il fût arrivé à sa dernière limite."Il faut en convenir, depuis mon arrivée à Parme, se dit-il enfin après plusieurs heures de rêveries délicieuses, je n'ai point eu de joie tranquille et parfaite, comme celle que je trouvais à Naples en galopant dans les chemins de Vomero ou en courant les rives de Misène. Tous”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“des méchants ou un orage avaient rompu l'une des principales branches du jeune arbre, qui pendait desséchée; Fabrice la coupa avec respect, à l'aide de son poignard, et tailla bien net la coupure, afin que l'eau ne pût pas s'introduire dans le tronc. Ensuite quoique le temps fût bien précieux pour lui, car lé jour allait paraître, il passa une bonne heure à bêcher la terre autour de l'arbre chéri. Toutes”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“Durerea pe care un om o poartă în suflet de pe urma unei iubiri nefericite, face ca orice lucru ce l-ar sili să-și adune gândurile și să-și cheltuiască energia, să i se pară o corvoadă îngrozitoare.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“The presence of danger inspires a sensible man with genius, raising him, so to speak, above himself. In the case of the man of imagination, it inspires him with romances, which may indeed be bold, but which are frequently absurd.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“C'est par une folie d'imagination que Napoléon s'est rendu au prudent John Bull, au lieu de chercher à gagner l'Amérique. John Bull, dans son comptoir, a bien ri de sa lettre où il cite Thémistocle. De tous temps les vils Sancho Pança l'emporteront à la longue sur les sublimes don Quichotte. Si”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“There's one convenience about absolute power, that it sanctifies everything in the eyes of the people.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“Dans les cours despotiques, le premier intrigant adroit dispose de la vérité, comme la mode en dispose à Paris.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
“Fabrice, de son côté, croyait qu'un homme de son rang était au-dessus des lois; il ne calculait pas que dans les pays où les grands noms ne sont jamais punis, l'intrigue peut tout, même contre eux. Il”
― Stendhal, quote from The Charterhouse of Parma
Stendhal
Born place: in Grenoble, France
Born date January 23, 1783
See more on GoodReads
“I recall certain moments, let us call them icebergs in paradise, when after having had my fill of her –after fabulous, insane exertions that left me limp and azure-barred–I would gather her in my arms with, at last, a mute moan of human tenderness (her skin glistening in the neon light coming from the paved court through the slits in the blind, her soot-black lashes matted, her grave gray eyes more vacant than ever–for all the world a little patient still in the confusion of a drug after a major operation)–and the tenderness would deepen to shame and despair, and I would lull and rock my lone light Lolita in my marble arms, and moan in her warm hair, and caress her at random and mutely ask her blessing, and at the peak of this human agonized selfless tenderness (with my soul actually hanging around her naked body and ready to repent), all at once, ironically, horribly, lust would swell again–and 'oh, no,' Lolita would say with a sigh to heaven, and the next moment the tenderness and the azure–all would be shattered.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from Lolita
“- Why me?
- That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?
- Yes.
- Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, quote from Slaughterhouse-Five
“What is a country? A country is a piece of land surrounded on all sides by boundaries, usually unnatural. Englishmen are dying for England, Americans are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany, Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war. Surely so many countries can't all be worth dying for.”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Catch-22
“I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, quote from Frankenstein
“Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Dune
Food of the Gods: Th...
The Confusions of Yo...
City of Bohane
The Post-Office Girl
Of Beast and BeautyBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
