Best 156 quotes of Madame De Stael on MyQuotes

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.

A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it.

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.

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

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

A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn.

As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.

Atheism exists only in coldness, selfishness, and baseness.

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

Be happy, but be happy through piety.

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

Conscience is doubtless sufficient to conduct the coldest character into the road of virtue; but enthusiasm is to conscience what honor is to duty; there is in us a superfluity of soul, which it is sweet to consecrate to the beautiful when the good has been accomplished.

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.

Courage of soul is necessary for the triumphs of genius.

Divine Wisdom, intending to detain us some time on earth, has done well to cover with a veil the prospect of the life to come; for if our sight could clearly distinguish the opposite bank, who would remain on this tempestuous coast of time?

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

Every time a new nation, America or Russia for instance, advances toward civilization, the human race perfects itself; every time an inferior class emerges from enslavement and degradation, the human race again perfects itself.

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

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

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

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

Goethe has made a remark upon the perfectability of the human mind, which is full of sagacity: It is always advancing, but in a spiral line.

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.

Happiness is a wondrous commodity: the more you give, the more you have.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

I do not want an echo of myself from my children. I do not want to hear from them merely the reverberation of my own voice.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities.

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

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

... 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.

inventiveness is childish, practice sublime.

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

It is difficult to grow old gracefully.

It is not enough to forgive; one must forget.

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.

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.

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.

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