Madame De Stael Quotes

The language of religion can alone suit every situation and every mode of feeling.

That past which is so presumptuously brought forward as a precedent for the present, was itself founded on some past that went before it.

Love which is only an episode in the life of men, is the entire history of the life of women.

The memories which come to us through music are not accompanied by any regrets; for a moment music gives us back the pleasures it retraces, and we feel them again rather than recollect them.

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

Between God and love, I recognize no mediator but my conscience ...

The mind may be exhausted, but the language of the heart is inexhaustible.

The last steps of life are ever slow and difficult.

The success of any man with any woman is apt to displease even his best friends.

Love is the whole history of a woman's life, it is but an episode in a man's.

One must choose in life between boredom and suffering.

Thought can never be compared with action, but when it awakens in us the image of truth.

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.

[On Italian:] One may almost call it a language that talks of itself, and always seems more witty than its speakers.

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.

O Earth! all bathed with blood and years, yet never / Hast thou ceased putting forth thy fruit and flowers.

Nothing is so horrifying as the possibility of existing simply because we do not know how to die.

The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it.

When we destroy an old prejudice, we have need of a new virtue.

Courage of soul is necessary for the triumphs of genius.

Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation, the source of strength is one's self. When one prays, he goes to a source of strength greater than his own.

The more I see of men the more I like dogs.

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

Only the refined and delicate pleasures that spring from research and education can build up barriers between different ranks.

Life, for me, is living among my friends.

In matters of the heart, nothing is true except the improbable.

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

Man's most valuable faculty is his imagination.

It is difficult to grow old gracefully.

We always cut our poetical theories to suit our talent ...

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.

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.

Gaiety pleases more when we are assured that it does not cover carelessness.

Nothing recalls the past like music ...

I am glad that I am not a man, for then I should have to marry a woman.

Purity of mind and conduct is the first glory of a woman.

Exile: A tomb in which you can get mail.

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.

Providence protects us in all the details of our lot.

Music revives the recollections it would appease.

The people are as severe toward the clergy as toward women; they want to see absolute devotion to duty from both.

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

Tombs decked by the arts can scarcely represent death as a formidable enemy; we do not, indeed, like the ancients, carve sports and dances in the sarcophagus, but thought is diverted from the bier by works that tell of immortality, even from the altar of death.

Taste is to literature what bon ton is in society.

Of all human sentiments, enthusiasm creates the most happiness; it is the only sentiment in fact which gives real happiness, the only sentiment which can help us to bear our human destiny in any situation in which we may find ourselves.

It seems to me that life's circumstances, being ephemeral, teach us less about durable truths than the fictions based on those truths; and that the best lessons of delicacy and self-respect are to be found in novels where the feelings are so naturally portrayed that you fancy you are witnessing real life as you read.

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

Life teaches much, but to all thinking persons it brings ever closer the will of God - not because their faculties decline, but on the contrary, because they increase.

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

Intellect does not attain its full force unless it attacks power.

A voyage without companionship, that is to say without conversation, is one of the saddest pleasures of life.

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

The egotism of woman is always for two.

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

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

We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love

Venice astonishes more than it pleases at first sight ...

Genius inspires this thirst for fame: there is no blessing undesired by those to whom Heaven gave the means of winning it.

The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.

Prayer is the life of the soul.

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.

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.

Intellect is a sin that must be atoned for by leading exactly the life of those who have none.

Whatever efforts one may make, one must revert to the realization that religion is the real basis of morality; religion is the real and perceptible purpose within us, which alone, can turn aside our attention from things ... The science of morality can no more teach human beings to be honest, in all the magnificence of this word, than geometry can teach one how to draw.

[On Napoleon:] One has the impression of an imperious wind blowing about one's ears when one is near that man.

The more we know the better we forgive. Whoever feels deeply, feels for all who live.

New doctrines ever displease the old. They like to fancy that the world has been losing wisdom, instead of gaining it, since they were young.

The most careful reasoning characters are very often the most easily abashed.

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.

I believe that happiness consists in having a destiny in keeping with our abilities. Our desires are things of the moment, often harmful even to ourselves; but our abilities are permanent, and their demands never cease.

Kindness and generosity ... form the true morality of human actions.

How true it is that, sooner or later, the' most rebellious must bow beneath the yoke of misfortune!

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

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

Glory can be for a woman but the brilliant morning of happiness.

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

Atheism exists only in coldness, selfishness, and baseness.

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

The sense of this word among the Greeks affords the noblest definition of it; enthusiasm signifies God in us.

Scientific progress makes moral progress a necessity; for if man's power is increased, the checks that restrain him from abusing it must be strengthened.

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.

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

One must, so long as there is any life left, back up the character of one's life.

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.

Never, never have I been loved as I love others!

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.

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.

The more I see of man, the more I like dogs.

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

The mind's pleasures are made to calm the tempests of the heart.

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

Wit consists in knowing the resemblance of things that differ, and the difference of things that are alike.

What matters in a character is not whether one holds this or that opinion: what matters is how proudly one upholds it.

Be happy, but be happy through piety.

Love is the symbol of eternity.

Have you not observed that faith is generally strongest in those whose character may be called the weakest?

Love is above the laws, above the opinion of men; it is the truth, the flame, the pure element, the primary idea of the moral world.

Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak.

Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.

It is not enough to forgive; one must forget.