Madame de Stael Quotes - Page 5

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.

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.

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.

[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.

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

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

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

Love is the symbol of eternity.

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

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.

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.

Taste is to literature what bon ton is in society.

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

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

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.

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.

Whatever is natural admits of variety.

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

The egotism of woman is always for two.

We always cut our poetical theories to suit our talent.

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

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.

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.

[The Germans] so easily confuse obstinacy with energy, and rudeness with firmness.

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