Skip to content

Love has always been the most important business in my life; I should say the only one.

L'amour a toujours été pour moi la plus grande des affaires ou plutôt la seule.

Original text (French)

Another quote →

Notes from Wikiquote

La Vie d'Henri Brulard (1890)

Variants

Love has always been the most important business in my life, or rather the only one.

Topics

More quotes by Stendhal

I call "crystallization" that action of the mind that discovers fresh perfections in its beloved at every turn of events.

De L'Amour (On Love) (1822)

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.

De L'Amour (On Love) (1822)

When a man leaves his mistress, he runs the risk of being betrayed two or three times daily.

Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) (1830)

One can acquire everything in solitude — except character.

De L'Amour (On Love) (1822)

Any man who talks about his love affairs thereby proves he is ignorant of love and is moved only by vanity.

All Stendhal quotes →

You may also like

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.

Sanu Sharma

Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.

Alexander Pope

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Stendhal (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.