Madame de Stael
Madame de Stael
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein, commonly known as Madame de Staël, was a French woman of letters of Swiss origin whose lifetime overlapped with the events of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era. She was one of Napoleon's principal opponents. Celebrated for her conversational eloquence, she participated actively in the political and intellectual life of her times. Her works, both critical and fictional, made their mark on the history of European Romanticism...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth22 April 1766
CountryFrance
The language of religion can alone suit every situation and every mode of feeling.
The people are as severe toward the clergy as toward women; they want to see absolute devotion to duty from both.
O memory, thou bitter sweet,--both a joy and a scourge!
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.
The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.
Love, supreme power of the heart, mysterious enthusiasm that encloses in itself all poetry, all heroism, all religion!
Thought can never be compared with action, but when it awakens in us the image of truth.
[On Russia:] In every way, there is something gigantic about this people: ordinary dimensions have no applications whatever to it. I do not mean by this that true greatness and stability are never met with; but their boldness, their imaginativeness knows no bounds. With them everything is colossal rather than well-proportioned, audacious rather than well-considered, and if they do not attain their goals, it is because they exceed them.
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.
As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.
Beauty is one in the universe, and, whatever form it assumes, it always arouses a religious feeling in the hearts of mankind.
The human mind always makes progress, but it is a progress in spirals.
Who understands much forgives much. To understand everything makes us very forgiving ...
When once enthusiasm has been turned into ridicule, everything is undone except money and power.