Top 190 Quotes & Sayings by Madame de Stael - Page 3

[Moralistic] novels are at the same disadvantage as teachers: children never believe them, because they make everything that happens relate to the lesson at hand.

Liberty is the only idea which circulates with the human blood, in all ages, in all countries, and in all literature - liberty that is, and what cannot be separated from liberty, a love of country.

The greater part of what women write about women is mere sycophancy to man.

Providence protects us in all the details of our lot.

The soul is a fire that darts its rays through all the senses; it is in this fire that existence consists; all the observations and all the efforts of philosophers ought to turn towards this ME, the centre and moving power of our sentiments and our ideas.

The education of life perfects the thinking mind, but depraves the frivolous.

How much past there is in a life, however brief it be.

When women oppose themselves to the projects and ambition of men, they excite their lively resentment; if in their youth they meddle with political intrigues, their modesty must suffer.

I must keep on rowing, not until I reach port but until I reach my grave.

It seems to me that we become more dear one to the other, in together admiring works of art, which speak to the soul by their true grandeur.

Love is the history of a woman's life; it is an episode in man's. [Fr., L'amour est l'histoire de la vie des femmes; c'est un episode dans celle des hommes.]

Wit lies in the likeness of things that are different, and in the difference of things that are alike.

Mystery such as is given of God is beyond the power of human penetration, yet not in opposition to it.

There is no second country for an Englishman, except a ship and the sea.

I never was able to believe in the existence of next year except as in a metaphysical notion.

The thing that must be preserved in all situations whatever is the reputation of one's character.

When at eve, at the bounding of the landscape, the heavens appear to recline so slowly on the earth, imagination pictures beyond the horizon an asylum of hope, - a native land of love; and nature seems silently to repeat that man is immortal.

a perfect piece of architecture kindles that aimless reverie, which bears the soul we know not whither.

inventiveness is childish, practice sublime.

The universe is in France; outside it, there is nothing.

Life resembles Gobelin tapestry; you do not see the canvass on the right side; but when you turn it, the threads are visible.

The only equitable manner in my opinion, of judging the character of a man is to examine if there are personal calculations in his conduct; if there are not, we may blame his manner of judging, but we are not the less bound to esteem him.

If one hour's work is enough to govern France, four minutes is all that is needed for Italy. There is no nation more easily frightened; even its poetic imagination predisposes it to fear, and they look upon power as on an image that fills them with terror.

There is no reality on this earth except religion and the power of love; all the rest is even more fugitive than life itself.

No nation has the right to bring about a revolution, even though such a change may be most urgently needed, if the price is the blood of one single innocent individual.

there is not enough interest in life to spread over twenty-four hours when one can't sleep.

The face of a woman, whatever be the force or extent of her mind, whatever be the importance of the object she pursues, is always an obstacle or a reason in the story of her life.

Good taste cannot supply the place of genius in literature, for the best proof of taste, when there is no genius, would be, not to write at all.

What is love, if it can calculate and provide against its own decay?

There are women vain of advantages not connected with their persons, such as birth, rank, and fortune; it is difficult to feel less the dignity of the sex. The origin of all women may be called celestial, for their power is the offspring of the gifts of Nature; by yielding to pride and ambition they soon destroy the magic of their charms.

I desire no other proof of Christianity than the Lord's Prayer.

Man's most valuable faculty is his imagination.

women have no existence except in love; the history of their life begins and ends with love!

Venice astonishes more than it pleases at first sight.

Strangers are contemporary posterity. [Fr., Les etrangers sont la posterite contemporaine.]

To live beneath sorrow, one must yield to it.

in Italy, almost at every step, history and poetry add to the graces of nature, sweeten the memory of the past, and seem to preserve it in eternal youth.

A Gothic building engenders true religion ... The light, falling through colored glass, the singular forms of the architecture, unite to give a silent image of that infinite mystery which the soul for ever feels, and never comprehends.

All music, even if its occasion be a gay one, renders us pensive.

Danger is like wine, it goes to your head.

Anything that happens gradually is always irrevocable.

In women's destiny everything goes downhill except for thought, whose immortal nature it is to keep constantly rising.

Superstition is related to this life, religion to the next; superstition is allied to fatality, religion to virtue; it is by the vivacity of earthly desires that we become superstitious; it is, on the contrary, by the sacrifice of these desires that we become religious.

Frivolity, under whatever form it appears, deprives attention of its power, thought of its originality, and sentiment of its depth.

The sight of such a monument is like continual and stationary music, which one hears for one's good as one approaches it.

The pursuit of politics is religion, morality, and poetry all in one.

Society develops wit, but its contemplation alone forms genius.

Conversation as talent exists only in France. In other countries, conversation provides politeness, discussion, and friendship; in France, it is an art for which imagination and soul are certainly very welcome, but which can also provide its own secret remedies to compensate you for the absence of either or both, if you so desire.

It is obvious that the most despotic forms of social organization would be suitable for inert men who are satisfied with the situation fate has placed them in, and that the most abstract form of democratic theory would be practicable among sages guided only by their reason. The only problem is to what degree it is possible to excite or to contain the passions without endangering public happiness.

Let us then blend everything: love, religion, genius, with sunshine, perfume, music, and poetry.

O memory, thou bitter sweet,--both a joy and a scourge!

You do not reach the sublime by degrees; the distance between it and the merely beautiful is infinite.

We understand death only after it has placed its hands on someone we love.

If it were not for respect for human opinions, I would not open my window to see the Bay of Naples for the first time, whilst I would go five hundred leagues to talk with a man of genius whom I had not seen.

... in the history of the human mind there has never been a useful thought or a profound truth that has not found its century and admirers.

Self-love, so sensitive in its own cause, has rarely any sympathy to spare for others.

However old a conjugal union, it still garners some sweetness. Winter has some cloudless days, and under the snow a few flowers still bloom.

The life of famous men was more glorious in antiquity; the life of obscure men is happier with the moderns.

If we would succeed in works of the imagination, we must offer a mild morality in the midst of rigid manners; but where the manners are corrupt, we must consistently hold up to view an austere morality.

There are only two distinct classes of people on this earth, those who espouse enthusiasm and those who despise it.