Stendhal

Women are always eagerly on the lookout for any emotion.

Prudery is a kind of avarice, the worst of all.

The more one pleases everybody, the less one pleases profoundly.

To be loved at first sight, a man should have at the same time something to respect and something to pity in his face.

Every great action is extreme when it is undertaken. Only after it has been accomplished does it seem possible to those creatures of more common stuff.

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

Women prefer emotions to reasoning.

Beauty is only a promise of happiness.

One can acquire everything in solitude except character.

A novel is a mirror which passes over a highway. Sometimes it reflects to your eyes the blue of the skies, at others the churned-up mud of the road.

Politics in the middle of things that concern the imagination are like a pistol-shot in the middle of a concert.

I see but one rule: to be clear .