The Charterhouse of Parma, Volume 1

“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

“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

“There's one convenience about absolute power, that it sanctifies everything in the eyes of the people.””

— Stendhal

“Mutluluğu uzaklarda aramaya kalkmanın ne anlamı var, işte burada, elimin altında!””

— Stendhal

“This man, whom great monarchies would have envied the prince of Parma, was known to have only one passion: of holding intimate conversations with great personages and currying favour by his buffoonery.””

— Stendhal

“Tahtın üzerine ya da yakınına doğan zeki insanlar, kısa sürede incelikli düşünme yetilerini yitirirler; çevrelerinde, kabalık olarak gördükleri konuşma özgürlüğünü yasaklarlar; yalnızca birtakım maskeler görmek isterler ve insanları tenlerinin güzelliğine bakarak yargılamaya kalkarlar; işin hoş yanı, sezgilerinin çok ince olduğuna inanmalarıdır.””

— Stendhal

“petty despotisms reduce to nothing the value of public opinion.””

— Stendhal

“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

“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