"The only excuse for God is that He does not exist."

Stendhal Psychology See all quotes by Stendhal →

React to this quote

More by Stendhal

“It is better to have a prosaic husband and to take a romantic lover.”

“Centro Stendhaliano di Milano Digital version of Stendhal's shoulder-notes on his own books.”

“The great majority of men, especially in France, both desire and possess a fashionable woman, much in the way one might own a fine horse — as a luxury befitting a young man.”

“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.”

“Stendhal's works: text, concordances and frequency list”

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

Resonant Thoughts

"God does not intend people, and does not like people, to be too good. He likes them neither too good nor too bad, but a little too bad is more venial with him than a little too good."

— Samuel Butler (novelist)

Literature1835–1902

#religion

"Guru Nanak 'called himself a Hindu. According to Janamsâkhî, he wore a sacred thread and had a lock of hair on his head. After him till the fifth Guru, each had his sacred thread ceremony performed, w…"

— Guru Nanak

Education1469–1539

#religion

"In my view, and we've introduced legislation to deal with this, if a bank is too big to fail, it is too big to exist."

— Bernie Sanders

Politics1941

#humor

"I should be going with Champfleury and Stevens, but they keep putting it off. Anyway, they are bloody bores. Excuse the unseeming language, but since my letter is not for publication, I can say what I…"

— Édouard Manet

Art1832–1883

#humor