One can acquire everything in solitude except character.

— Stendhal

Only great minds can afford a simple style.

— Stendhal

People happy in love have an air of intensity.

— Stendhal

Power, after love, is the first source of happiness.

— Stendhal

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

— Stendhal

The first virtue of a young man today - that is, for the next fifty years perhaps, as long as we live in fear, and religion has regained its powers - is to be incapable of enthusiasm and not to have much in the way of brains.

— Stendhal

The man of genius is he and he alone who finds such joy in his art that he will work at it come hell or high water.

— Stendhal

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

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

— Stendhal

The only unhappiness is a life of boredom.

— Stendhal