Stendhal’s ‘The Red and the Black’ is a two-volume historical psychological novel published in 1830.
It is a satirical depiction of post-Waterloo French society, filled with corruption, greed, and ennui.
The story follows a provincial young man’s efforts to climb socially beyond his lowly surroundings via a mix of intelligence, hard work, deception, and hypocrisy.
Let’s go through the list of famous quotes from The Red and the Black novel.
Table of Contents
The Red and the Black Quotes by Stendhal
“The idea which tyrants find most useful is the idea of God.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“A good book is an event in my life.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“An English traveler 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.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“It was the destiny of Napoleon – would it one day be his?” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“Your career will be a painful one. I divine something in you which offends the vulgar.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“Faith, I am no such fool; everyone for himself in this desert of selfishness which is called life.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“Together with his fiery soul, Julien possessed one of those stunning memories so often linked to stupidity.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“Prestige! Sir, is it nothing? To be revered by fools, gaped at by children, envied by the rich and scorned by the wise.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“The suspicion that a rival is loved is painful enough already, but to have the love that he inspires in her confessed to one in detail by the woman whom one adores is without doubt the acme of suffering.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
Other Book Quotes: Practical Magic Quotes by Alice Hoffman and The Time Traveler’s Wife Quotes by Audrey Niffenegger
Quotes from The Red and the Black
“The tyranny of public opinion (and what an opinion!) is as fatuous in the small towns of France as it is in the United States of America.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“I think being condemned to death is the only real distinction,” said Mathilde. “It is the only thing which cannot be bought.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“…one of the traits of genius is not to drag its thought through the rut worn by vulgar minds.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“A novel is a mirror walking along a main road.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“After moral poisoning, one requires physical remedies and a bottle of champagne.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“I will never demean myself to speak about my courage,” said Julien, coldly, “it would be mean to do so. Let the world judge by the facts.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“An insane self-consciousness made him commit thousands of blunders.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“Your water does not refresh me, said the thirsty genie. Yet it is the coolest well in all the Diar Bekir.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
Famous The Red and the Black Quotes
“Want of exercise was beginning to affect his health and to give him the weak and excitable character of a young German student.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“I am mad, I am going under, I must follow the advice of a friend, and pay no heed to myself.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“The traveler who’s just climbed a steep mountain sits down at the top, and finds perfect pleasure in resting. Would he be as happy, if he were forced to do nothing but rest?” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“Our true passions are selfish.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“What is the use of a love that makes one yawn? One might as well take to religion.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“Indeed, man has two different beings inside him. What devil thought of that malicious touch?” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“There are no longer any real passions in the nineteenth century: that’s why one is so bored in France. People commit acts of the greatest cruelty, but without any feeling of cruelty.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
Top The Red and the Black Quotes by Stendhal
“Love born in the brain is more spirited, doubtless, than true love, but it has only flashes of enthusiasm; it knows itself too well, it criticizes itself incessantly; so far from banishing thought, it is itself reared only upon a structure of thought.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“It seems that my destiny is to die dreaming.” ~ Stendhal, The Red And The Black.
“But, if I sample this pleasure so prudently and circumspectly, it will no longer be a pleasure.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“Each man for himself in that desert of egoism which is called life.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“The ordinary procedure of the nineteenth century is that when a powerful and noble personage encounters a man of feeling, he kills, exiles, imprisons or so humiliates him that the other, like a fool, dies of grief.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“Misery destroys judgment.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
“A girl of sixteen had a complexion like a rose, and she put on rouge.” ~ Stendhal (The Red and the Black).
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