Quotes from The Red and the Black

“A good book is an event in my life.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“A novel is a mirror walking along a main road.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“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 from The Red and the Black

“After moral poisoning, one requires physical remedies and a bottle of champagne.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“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 from The Red and the Black

“Indeed, man has two different beings inside him. What devil thought of that malicious touch?”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“Each man for himself in that desert of egoism which is called life.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“The ordinary procedure of the nineteenth century is that when a powerful and noble personage encounters a man of feeling, he kills, exiles, imprisons or so humiliates him that the other, like a fool, dies of grief.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“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 from The Red and the Black

“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 from The Red and the Black

“I am mad, I am going under, I must follow the advice of a friend, and pay no heed to myself.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“The tyranny of public opinion (and what an opinion!) is as fatuous in the small towns of France as it is in the United States of America.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“But, if I sample this pleasure so prudently and circumspectly, it will no longer be a pleasure.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“Your career will be a painful one. I divine something in you which offends the vulgar.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“What is the use of a love that makes one yawn? One might as well take to religion.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“They were completely vague. They expressed everything and nothing. 'It is the Æolian harp of style,' thought Julien. 'Amid the most lofty thoughts about annihilation, death, the infinite, etc., I can see no reality save a shocking fear of ridicule.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“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 from The Red and the Black

“Un des moments les plus pénibles de sa vie était celui où, chaque matin, en s'éveillant, il s'apprenait son malheur.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“آدمى سخن مى گويد تا افكار خود را بيشتر پنهان كند.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“Ce iubire mai e aceea care te face sa casti?”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“C'est la violente impression du laid sur une âme faite pour aimer ce qui est beau. ”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“Prestige! Sir, is it nothing? To be revered by fools, gaped at by children, envied by the rich and scorned by the wise.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“The footman burst in, announcing, 'Monsieur le Duc de ---.'
'Hold your tongue, you fool,' said the Duke as he entered the room. He said this so well, and with such majesty than Julien could not help thinking that knowing how to lose his temper with a footman was the whole extent of this great personage's knowledge.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“...one of the traits of genius is not to drag its thought through the rut worn by vulgar minds.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

“Exalted by a sentiment of which she was proud, and that overcame all her arrogance, she was reluctant to let a moment of her life go by without occupying it with some remarkable deed.”
― Stendhal, quote from The Red and the Black

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Popular quotes

“Brambleclaw's tail filicked angrily. "Did there have to be so many lies?" He was staring at Squirrelflight. "Couldn't you have told me the truth?"
Squirrelflight dipped her head. "It was never my secret to tell. Leafpool had so much to lose".
"She lost everything anyway", Brambleclaw snarled.
"No, I didn't". Leafpool lifted her muzzle. "I watched my kits grow into fine warrior, and I still serve my Clan with all my heart".
Lionblaze felt his heart prick. Perhaps this was the truth that was most important. Leafpool had sacrificed so much and, even though her kits rejected her time and again, she'd never stopped loving them. In his darkest moments, he couldn't deny that.
"Brambleclaw, I'm sorry". Squirrelflight moved closer to the ThunderClan deputy. Her voice was stronger now, as if she was tired of being punished for something she had believed to be right. "You have to understand that I never intended to hurt you. I loved you, and was proud to raise these kits with you. You were a wonderful father".
"But I wasn't their father!" Brambleclaw hissed.
"Yes, you were!" Squirrelflight thrust her muzzle close to Brambleclaw's. Her eyes blazed. "Don't throw away everything just because you are angry with me!"
Lionblaze swallowed. "I was so proud to be your son".
Brambleclaw looked at him in surprise, as if he'd forgotton Lionblaze was there. Something in the deputy's expression changed. "And I couldn't have asked for a better son. And you Jayfeather. Or a better daughter, Hollyleaf." Hollyleaf opened her mouth as if to protest, but Brambleclaw spoke first. "You played no part in this deception, I know that. Whatever you did, it was because of the lies taht had been told when you were born."
"It was my fault alone," Leafpool meowed quietly. "You are wrong to blame Squirrelflight. She was just being loyal to me. And now that we know about the prophecy, surely the only thing that matters is that these kits were accepted by their Clan? It's not about us, after all. It's about them. Their destinies shaped ours, right from the moment they were born."
Squirrelflight nodded. "Everything was meant to be".
Lionblaze looked down at his paws. If these cats could accept their destinies, then he had enough courage to accept his. I am one of the Four.”
― Erin Hunter, quote from The Last Hope

“Sometimes you can’t choose what you love.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from The Last Days

“A scratch at the door interrupted us. Colin dropped and rolled under the bed again. One of the maids poked her head in. "Miss?"
I tried not to look as if I was hiding a handsome young lad under the mattress.
"Yes?"
"Lord Jasper sent me up to see if you need help getting ready for a ball." She smiled proudly. "I have a fair hand with a curling iron."
"Oh.Thank you." I needed to get Colin out before I ended up naked in the middle of my bedroom. "I,um, could I get some hot water? To wash my face?"
"Certainly,miss. I'll have the footmen bring up the bathtub, if you like, before all the fine ladies start calling for their own baths."
"That would be great, thanks." I'd never actually been in a full reclining tub before. We had a battered hip bath in the kitchen.
The maid curtsied and closed the door behind her. I let out a breath. Colin crawled back out. "They need to sweep under there," he said, sneezing.”
― Alyxandra Harvey, quote from Haunting Violet

“The 'bad guys' are the ones who are often misunderstood”
― Matt Myklusch, quote from The Accidental Hero

“As any layperson who has attempted to understand this theory is aware, even a basic comprehension of Einstein’s principle demands a willingness to defy common sense.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, quote from The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

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