Stendhal

"A man drowning in despair will grab at any hand that reaches down."

"The most beautiful things often contain within themselves the seeds of their own destruction."

"History is merely the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind."

"We must not be cowards and serve evil and injustice wherever we go."

"Time is a river of passing events; each is quickly carried away, another comes into its place."

"The perfection of wisdom is to know oneself."

"The great error of most biographers is to make men either white or black; there is no grey in their pictures."

"The effect which women produce upon men is generally most fatal to their own peace."

"Music is the shorthand of emotion."

"Every moment of great inspiration opens up a profound new meaning in our lives."

"The best proof of love is trust."

"True genius is distinguished by its power to change; the second-rate mind lives in its past."

"Vanity is the sole of all evil in society."

"The only man who can change his mind is the man who has a mind to change."

"I do not believe anything until it is officially denied."

"The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude."

"In true love there is no comedy."

"The greatest heights of power are only reached by men who were not born to power."

"The mind creates a kind of prison for itself through habitual thought."

"The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the thing found."

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies."

"We must respect the past, and mistrust the present, if we wish to sanctify the future."

"The highest title of respect given to a man is to be called a friend."

"All that matters is that which cannot be seen."

"Talent is the capacity for seeing more deeply and comprehensively than ordinary people."

"To die is to cease all perception, all sensation, all feeling; what can be more ignoble than that?"

"The art of being happy is to discover that virtue is not far from pleasure."

"There is a vast difference between what people think they think and what they actually believe."

"The most dangerous man is the idealist; he has no conception of reality."

"Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear."