Stendhal Quotes

Rather suffer than die is man's motto.

A word after a word after a word is power.

We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.

Poetry is about the grief. Politics is about the grievance.

If the human condition were the periodic table, maybe love would be hydrogen at No. 1. Death would be helium at No. 2. Power, I reckon, would be where oxygen is.

Self preservation is the first law of nature and governments.

The strongest absorbs the weakest, and he has a right to do so.

It is as much in the order of nature that men should enslave each other as that animals should prey upon each other.

The supremacist ideology of the Bush Administration stands in opposition to the principles of an open society, which recognize that people have different views and that nobody is in possession of the ultimate truth. The supremacist ideology postulates that just because we are stronger than others, we know better and have right on our side.

Hunger can bring out the worst in us.

What I say is that 'just' or 'right' means nothing but what is in the interest of the stronger party.

The goblins of the city may hold committees to divide a single potato, but the strong and the cruel still sit on the hill, and drink vodka, and wear black furs, and slurp borscht by the pail, like blood. Children may wear through their socks marching in righteous parades, but Papa never misses his wine with supper. Therefore, it is better to be strong and cruel than to be fair. At least, one eats better that way. And morality is more dependent on the state of one’s stomach than of one’s nation.

Our predecessors overcame many troubles and much suffering, but each time got back up stronger than before.

People say, That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But they are wrong. What doesn't kill you doesn't kill you. That's all you get. Sometimes, you just have to hope that's enough.

Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.

There's something to be said for hunger: at least it lets you know you're still alive.

What can we give a child when there is nothing left?

I have plumbed the depth of human cowardice and I realized that there is only one way to be right, and that is to be in power.

Law is no explanation of anything; law is simply a generalization, a category of facts. Law is neither a cause, nor a reason, nor a power, nor a coercive force. It is nothing but a general formula, a statistical table.

This world belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak. We must face up to this. No more than right that it should be this way. We must learn to accept it as a law of the natural world. The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong. In defense, the rabbit becomes sly and frightened and elusive and he digs holes and hides when the wolf is about. And he endures, he goes on. He knows his place. He most certainly doesn't challenge the wolf to combat. Now, would that be wise? Would it?

Strength and success; they are above morality, above criticism. It seems then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it.

The tiger will never lie down with the lamb; he acknowledges no pact that is not reciprocal. The lamb must learn to run with the tigers.

White Fang knew the law well: to oppress the weak and obey the strong.

There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.

When one comes to think of it, there are no such things as divine, immutable, or inalienable rights. Rights are things we get when we are strong enough to make good our claim on them.