Good Quotes

Well, ordinarily I'd just write 'em in the notebook, but in the interests of reviving my habit of blogging, here's some nice passages from Stendhal's Charterhouse of Parma:

Morality:

'The Raversi is not a woman to be disregarded,' the Conte remarked to his mistress, 'I consider her so far capable of resorting to any underhand measure that I separated from my wife solely because she insisted on taking as a lover Calaiere Bentivoglio, a friend of the Marchesa.'

Intelligence:

He was far from employing his time in a patient examination of the actual character of things in order to discover their causes. Reality still seemed to him dull and sordid. I can understand a person's not caring to look it in the face, but then he ought not to argue about it. Above all, he should not manufacture oubjections out of the various bits and pieces of his ignorance.

America:

On the other hand, in a republic such as America, one is forced to bore oneself the whole day long by paying serious court to the shopkeepers in the street, and become as dull and stupid as they are; and over there, one has no Opera.