Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), 1783 - 1842
Portrait by Johan Olaf Sodermark (1840)
Born: 23 January 1783, Grenoble, France
Died: 23 March 1841, Paris, France
Beyle was close to his mother, but she died seven years after his birth; he disliked his father, hated his aunt who took over raising him, and detested the Jesuit preach hired as his tutor. Through family connections he got an administrative job with the government in 1810, two years later he traveled with Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, in which three-fourths of the force died. Following the war, politics forced him into exile in what is now Italy, an area he genuinely enjoyed; when his relationship with France was good he served as consul at Trieste and Civitavecchia. His writing often was in conflict with governments, he wrote under over a hundred noms de plume, the most common one being Stendhal. As a writer he was a realist in a romantic era and his work was widely read only in the twentieth century. Not only did his many amorous affairs lead to conflict, they led to syphilis. His disabilities in later life were probably due more to the treatments he received than the disease.
Biography from Wikipedia and Authors' Calendar
Additional quotes from Wikiquote. Wikiquote entries are often "sourced" and may include items longer than those included here, particularly for poets, lyricists, and dramatists.
Stendhal quotes:
Quotes found : 63 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 5) 1 2 3 4 5 Next
Click here to find books by Stendhal at Amazon.com
- A forty-year-old woman is only something to men who have loved her in her youth! permalink
Stendhal - La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839) - A good book is an event in my life. permalink
Stendhal - Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) - A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love. permalink
Stendhal - A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love. permalink
Stendhal - After moral poisoning, one requires physical remedies and a bottle of champagne. permalink
Stendhal - Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) - All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few. permalink
Stendhal - Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us. To know men thoroughly, to judge events sanely, is, therefore, a great step towards happiness. permalink
Stendhal - Journal entry (10 December 1801) - 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. permalink
Stendhal - Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) - Beauty is nothing other than the promise of happiness. permalink
Stendhal - De L'Amour (On Love 1822) - Friendship has its illusions no less than love. permalink
Stendhal - I call "crystallization" that action of the mind that discovers fresh perfections in its beloved at every turn of events. permalink
Stendhal - De L'Amour (On Love 1822) - I love her beauty, but I fear her mind. permalink
Stendhal - I no longer find such pleasure in that preeminently good society, of which I was once so fond. It seems to me that beneath a cloak of clever talk it proscribes all energy, all originality. If you are not a copy, people accuse you of being ill-mannered. permalink
Stendhal - Armance (1827) - I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing. permalink
Stendhal - Letter to Honoré de Balzac (30 October 1840) - I think no woman I have had ever gave me so sweet a moment, or at so light a price, as the moment I owe to a newly heard musical phrase. permalink
Stendhal
Quotes found : 63 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 5) 1 2 3 4 5 Next
Please report any problems on this page! If you see any typos, incorrect attributions, deformed characters, or any other problem with this page, we want to fix it as soon
as possible. Please click here to report errors.
Note: Do not use titles in author searches, we don't use them, including president, senator, prime minister, king, queen, saint, pope, or doctor, or abbreviations thereof. See explanation here.
