James

“L’idée la plus utile aux tyrans est celle de Dieu,”
― 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

“Punish me for my atrocious pride,” she said to him, squeezing him in her arms as though to strangle him; “you are my master, I am your slave, I must beg pardon upon my knees for having sought to rebel.” She slipped from his embrace to fall at his feet. “Yes, you are my master,” she said again, intoxicated with love and joy; “reign over me for ever, punish your slave severely when she seeks to rebel.”
― 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