Madame De Stael Quotes & Sayings

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

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

How much past there is in a life, however brief it be. — Madame De Stael

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

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. — Madame De Stael

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. — Madame De Stael

And all the bustle of departure - sometimes sad, sometimes intoxicating - just as fear or hope may be inspired by the new chances of coming destiny. — Madame De Stael

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

Never, never have I been loved as I love others! — Madame De Stael

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

Man's most valuable faculty is his imagination. — Madame De Stael

Life often seems like a long shipwreck of which the debris are friendship, glory, and love. - The shores of existence are strewn with them. — Madame De Stael

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. — Madame De Stael

The greatest happiness is to transform one's feelings into action. — Madame De Stael

Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty. — Madame De Stael

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. — Madame De Stael

The universe is in France; outside it, there is nothing. — Madame De Stael

The pursuit of politics is religion, morality, and poetry all in one. — Madame De Stael

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

Inventiveness is childish, practice sublime. — Madame De Stael

Where no interest is takes in science, literature and liberal pursuits, mere facts and insignificant criticisms necessarily become the themes of discourse; and minds, strangers alike to activity and meditation, become so limited as to render all intercourse with them at once tasteless and oppressive. — Madame De Stael

As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely. — Madame De Stael

[Ridicule] laughs at all those who see the earnestness of life and who still believe in true feelings and in serious thought ... It soils the hope of youth. Only shameless vice is above its reach. — Madame De Stael

To be totally understanding makes one very indulgent. — Madame De Stael

To pray together, in whatever tongue or ritual, is the most tender brotherhood of hope and sympathy that man can contract in this life. — Madame De Stael

Providence protects us in all the details of our lot. — Madame De Stael

We understand death only after it has placed its hands on someone we love. — Madame De Stael

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

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. — Madame De Stael

Whatever is natural admits of variety. — Madame De Stael

When a noble life has prepared for old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality. — Madame De Stael

A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn. — Madame De Stael

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

The last steps of life are ever slow and difficult. — Madame De Stael

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

The language of religion can alone suit every situation and every mode of feeling. — Madame De Stael

It is difficult to grow old gracefully. — Madame De Stael

All music, even if its occasion be a gay one, renders us pensive. — Madame De Stael

The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man. — Madame De Stael

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

Danger is like wine, it goes to your head. — Madame De Stael

Anyone who can see as far as tomorrow in politics arouses the wrath of people who can see no farther than today. — Madame De Stael

In matters of the heart, nothing is true except the improbable. — Madame De Stael

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. — Madame De Stael

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

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

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. — Madame De Stael

Courage of soul is necessary for the triumphs of genius. — Madame De Stael

Poetry is the apotheosis of sentiment. — Madame De Stael

One must, in one's life, make a choice between boredom and suffering. — Madame De Stael

Wit lies in recognizing the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things which are alike. — Madame De Stael

Life, for me, is living among my friends. — Madame De Stael

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. — Madame De Stael

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. — Madame De Stael

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

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

Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities. — Madame De Stael

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. — Madame De Stael

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

Anything that happens gradually is always irrevocable. — Madame De Stael

Enthusiasm gives life to what is invisible; and interest to what has no immediate action on our comfort in this world. — Madame De Stael

A perfect piece of architecture kindles that aimless reverie, which bears the soul we know not whither. — Madame De Stael

Truth and, by consequence, liberty, will always be the chief power of honest men. — Madame De Stael

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. — Madame De Stael

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

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

The most beautiful landscapes in the world, if they evoke no memory, if they bear no trace of a remarkable event, are uninteresting compared to historic landscapes. — Madame De Stael

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

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. — Madame De Stael

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

Kindness and generosity ... form the true morality of human actions. — Madame De Stael

Men have made of fortune an all-powerful goddess, in order that she may be made responsible for all their blunder's. — Madame De Stael

Morality must guide calculation, and calculation must guide politics. — Madame De Stael

Purity of mind and conduct is the first glory of a woman. — Madame De Stael

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. — Madame De Stael

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. — Madame De Stael

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

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

Exile: A tomb in which you can get mail. — Madame De Stael

To live beneath sorrow, one must yield to it. — Madame De Stael

The mind may be exhausted, but the language of the heart is inexhaustible. — Madame De Stael

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

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

Happy the land where the writers are sad, the merchants satisfied, the rich melancholic, and the populace content. — Madame De Stael

Nothing recalls the past like music ... — Madame De Stael

Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end. — Madame De Stael

Society develops wit, but its contemplation alone forms genius. — Madame De Stael

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

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. — Madame De Stael

Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak. — Madame De Stael

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

When we destroy an old prejudice, we have need of a new virtue. — Madame De Stael

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. — Madame De Stael

Venice astonishes more than it pleases at first sight ... — Madame De Stael

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

Atheism exists only in coldness, selfishness, and baseness. — Madame De Stael

The world is the work of a single thought, expressed in a thousand different ways. — Madame De Stael

Glory can be for a woman but the brilliant morning of happiness. — Madame De Stael

I desire no other proof of Christianity than the Lord's Prayer. — Madame De Stael

The entire social order ... is arrayed against a woman who wants to rise to a man's reputation. — Madame De Stael