Madame de Stael Quotes - Page 7

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

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.]

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

Anything that happens gradually is always irrevocable.

To live beneath sorrow, one must yield to it.

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

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

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

Society develops wit, but its contemplation alone forms genius.

Danger is like wine, it goes to your head.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn.

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

Venice astonishes more than it pleases at first sight.

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

The study of history, it seems to me, leads to the conviction that all important events tend toward the same end - the civilization of mankind.

Courage of soul is necessary for the triumphs of genius.

Music revives the recollections it would appease.