One can acquire everything in solitude except character.
StendhalRead
To be loved at first sight, a man should have at the same time something to respect and something to pity in his face.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True admiration stems from a blend of respect and empathy.
Stendhal suggests that genuine love at first sight arises not only from admiration but also from the complexity of human emotion, which entails recognizing both admirable qualities and vulnerabilities in a person's appearance. This duality creates a deeper connection that transcends mere physical attraction, inviting a unique form of affection based on respect and compassion.
Themes
LoveAdmirationEmpathyRespectVulnerability
In practice
Example use cases
In a romantic speech at a wedding, one might use this quote to express the beauty of complex emotions in relationships.
More from Stendhal
All quotes →True love makes the thought of death frequent, easy, without terrors; it merely becomes the standard of comparison, the price one would pay for many things.
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In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can hope for in the future.
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A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.
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If you don't love me, it does not matter, anyway I can love for both of us.
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Pleasure is often spoiled by describing it.
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RumiRead
Wicked people means people who have no love: therefore, they have no shame. They have the power to ask love because the don't need it: they have the power to offer it because they have none to give.
George Bernard ShawRead
I think about being married again, having a home and a wife. No one can ever be married too many times, and maybe if I keep trying I'll get it right one day.
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A love affair is like a short story--it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning was easy, the middle might drag, invaded by commonplace, but the end, instead of being decisive and well knit with that element of revelatory surprise as a well-written story should be, it usually dissipated in a succession of messy and humiliating anticlimaxes.
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If you really love one another, you will not be able to avoid making sacrifices.
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These two are not two, love has made them one. Amo Ergo Sum! And by its mystery each is no less but more.
Benjamin BrittenRead