Stendhal

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that very existence is an act of rebellion."

"A novel is a mirror carried along a main road."

"I am too high-minded to hate, but I love to despise."

"Beauty is only the promise of happiness."

"The greatest happiness is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those dear to them bathed in tears."

"One can acquire everything in solitude except character."

"I love humanity but I hate humans."

"Prudishness is a kind of avarice, the worst of all."

"The confessional is the invention of the devil."

"Saint-Simonism is a religion without a God."

"The sight of a small village church does not interest me much."

"I am so constituted that I love something in every creature."

"Boredom is the only thing that attacks heroes."

"A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery."

"The passions are all, in all, and religion the most powerful."

"There is no such thing as a novel of ideas. There are only novels of passion."

"I see but one rule: to be clear."

"God's only apology is that he doesn't exist."

"True love is when you can still feel pain after the tears have dried."

"The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of."

"I despise myself for loving you."

"In matters of taste, there can be no dispute."

"Ah, well, to be great is to be misunderstood."

"To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves."

"The only shame is to have none."

"All great men are dying intestate in the presence of genius."

"The role of a writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say."

"Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue."

"A wise man doesn't give the right answer, he poses the right question."

"Politics is the science of imposing taxation."