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“In our calling, we have to choose; we must make our fortune either in this world or in the next, there is no middle way.”

Dans notre état, il faut opter; il s'agit de faire fortune dans ce monde ou dans l'autre, il n'y a pas de milieu.
Vol. I, ch. VIII
Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) (1830)

“I no longer find such pleasure in that preeminently good society, of which I was once so fond. It seems to me that beneath a cloak of clever talk it proscribes all energy, all originality.”

Source: Armance (1827), Ch. 10
Context: I no longer find such pleasure in that preeminently good society, of which I was once so fond. It seems to me that beneath a cloak of clever talk it proscribes all energy, all originality. If you are not a copy, people accuse you of being ill-mannered. And besides, good society usurps its privileges. It had in the past the privilege of judging what was proper, but now that it supposes itself to be attacked, it condemns not what is irredemably coarse and disagreeable, but what it thinks harmful to its interest.

“The pleasures and the cares of the luckiest ambition, even of limitless power, are nothing next to the intimate happiness that tenderness and love give.”

Source: La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma) (1839), Ch. 7
Context: The pleasures and the cares of the luckiest ambition, even of limitless power, are nothing next to the intimate happiness that tenderness and love give. I am a man before being a prince, and when I have the good fortune to be in love my mistress addresses a man and not a prince.

“This religion takes away the courage of thinking of unusual things and prohibits self-examination above all as the most egregious of sins; it is a step towards protestantism.”

Cette religion ôte le courage de penser aux choses inaccoutumées, et défend surtout lexamen personnel, comme le plus énorme des péchés; c'est un pas vers le protestantisme.
Source: La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma) (1839), Ch. 12

“At a distance, we cannot conceive of the authority of a despot who knows all his subjects on sight.”

De loin nous ne nous faisons pas d'idée de ce que c'est que l'autorité d'un despote qui connaît de vue tous ses sujets.
Source: La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma) (1839), Ch. 16

“Now that the steam engine rules the world, a title is an absurdity, still I am all dressed up in this title. It will crush me if I do not support it. The title attracts attention to myself.”

Depuis que la machine à vapeur est la reine du monde, un titre est une absurdité, mais enfin, je suis affublé de cette absurdité. Elle m'écrasera si je ne la soutiens. Ce titre attire l'attention sur moi.
Source: Armance (1827), Ch. 14

“The taste for freedom, the fashion and cult of happiness of the majority that the nineteenth century is infatuated with, was only a heresy in his eyes that would pass like others.”

Le goût de la liberté, la mode et le culte du bonheur du plus grand nombre, dont le XIXe siècle s'est entiché, n'étaient à ses yeux qu'une hérésie qui passera comme les autres.
Source: La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma) (1839), Ch. 7

“This mania of the mothers of the period, to be constantly in pursuit of a son-in-law.”

Cette manie des mères de ce siècle, d'être constamment à la chasse au mari.
Source: Armance (1827), Ch. 5

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

As quoted in "A Sentimental Education" by James Huneker, Scribner's Magazine, Vol. 43 (1908), p. 230, also quoted in Albert Camus's The Rebel and Nietzsche's Ecce Homo.

“Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us.”

Journal entry (10 December 1801)
Context: Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us. To know men thoroughly, to judge events sanely, is, therefore, a great step towards happiness.

“Signs cannot be represented, in a spy’s report, so damningly as words.”

Les signes ne peuvent pas figurer, dans un rapport d'espion, aussi avantageusement que des paroles.
Vol. I, ch. XXVII
Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) (1830)

“Wit lasts no more than two centuries.”

Le même esprit ne dure que deux cents ans.
Letter to Honoré de Balzac (30 October 1840)

“Our true passions are selfish.”

Les vraies passions sont égoïstes.
Vol. I, ch. XXI
Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) (1830)

“Why not make an end of it all?" he asked himself. "Why this obstinate resistance to the fate that is crushing me? It is all very well my forming what are apparently the most reasonable forms of conduct, my life is a succession of griefs and bitter feelings. This month is no better than the last; this year is no better than last year. Why this obstinate determination to go on living? Can I be wanting in firmness? What is death?" he asked himself, opening his case of pistols and examining them. "A very small matter, when all is said; only a fool would be concerned about it.”

Pourquoi ne pas en finir? se dit-il enfin; pourquoi cette obstination à lutter contre le destin qui m'accable? J'ai beau faire les plans de conduite les plus raisonnables en apparence, ma vie n'est qu'une suite de malheurs et de sensations amères. Ce mois-ci ne vaut pas mieux que le mois passé; cette année-ci ne vaut pas mieux que l'autre année; d'où vient cette obstination à vivre? Manquerais-je de fermeté? Qu'est-ce que la mort? se dit-il en ouvrant la caisse de ses pistolets et les considérant. Bien peu de chose en vérité; il faut être fou pour s'en passer.
Source: Armance (1827), Ch. 2

“One can acquire everything in solitude — except character.”

On peut tout acquérir dans la solitude, hormis du caractère.
Fragments
De L'Amour (On Love) (1822)

“A wise woman never yields by appointment. It should always be an unforeseen happiness.”

Source: De L'Amour (On Love) (1822), Ch. 60

“At La Scala it is customary to take no more than twenty minutes for those little visits one pays to boxes.”

A la Scala, il est d'usage de ne faire durer qu'une vingtaine de minutes ces petites visites que l'on fait dans les loges.
Source: La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma) (1839), Ch. 6

“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.
La Vie d'Henri Brulard (1890)
Variant translation: Love has always been the most important business in my life, or rather the only one.

“It is the nobility of their style which will make our writers of 1840 unreadable forty years from now.”

Ce sera la noblesse de leur style qui, dans quarante ans, rendra illisibles nos écrivains de 1840.
Marginalia note, first edition of La Chartreuse de Parme (1840)