Literary Birthday – 23 January – Stendhal

Stendhal was born 23 January 1783, and died 23 March 1842.

10 Quotes

1. A good book is an event in my life.
2. Life is too short, and the time we waste in yawning never can be regained.
3. All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few.
4. The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent.
5. Only great minds can afford a simple style.
6. The man of genius is he and he alone who finds such joy in his art that he will work at it come hell or high water.
7. A novel is a mirror walking along a main road.
8. Politics in a literary work, is like a gun shot in the middle of a concert, something vulgar, and however, something which is impossible to ignore.
9. One can acquire everything in solitude except character.
10. To describe happiness is to diminish it.

Stendhal was a 19th-century French writer. He was one of the earliest practitioners of realism. His novels include The Red and the Black  and The Charterhouse of Parma.

Source for Image: Olof Johan Södermark, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

by Amanda Patterson.

Please click here for our Literary Birthday Calendar