Quote collection
133 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Chélan had acted as imprudently for Julien as he had for himself. He had given him the habit of reasoning correctly, and of not being put off by empty words, but he had neglected to tell him that this habit was a crime in the person of no importance, since every piece of logical reasoning is offensive."
"Politics in the middle of things of the imagination is like a pistol shot in the middle of a concert."
"To find love in Paris you must go down among those classes where the absence of education and of vanity, and the struggle for bare necessities, have allowed more energy to survive."
"Wounded pride can take a rich young man far who is surrounded by flatterers since birth."
"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."
"Jean Jacques Rousseauis nothing but a fool in my eyes when he takes it upon himself to criticise society; he did not understand it, and approached it with the heart of an upstart flunkey.... For all his preaching a Republic and the overthrow of monarchical titles, the upstart is mad with joy if a Duke alters the course of his after-dinner stroll to accompany one of his friends."
"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?"
"I am mad, I am going under, I must follow the advice of a friend, and pay no heed to myself."
"Your career will be a painful one. I divine something in you which offends the vulgar."
"Napoleon was indeed the man sent by God to help the youth of France! Who is to take his place?"
"I think being condemned to death is the only real distinction," said Mathilde. "It is the only thing which cannot be bought."
"At a distance, we cannot conceive of the authority of a despot who knows all his subjects on sight."
"The English are, I think the most obtuse and barbarous people in the world"