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
intellect is a sin that must be atoned for by leading exactly the life of those who have none.
Why shouldn't man be as angry about not having always been alive as about having to stop being alive?
Life resembles Gobelin tapestry; you do not see the canvass on the right side; but when you turn it, the threads are visible.
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.
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.
[On Italian:] One may almost call it a language that talks of itself, and always seems more witty than its speakers.
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.
Venice astonishes more than it pleases at first sight ...
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.
How much past there is in a life, however brief it be.
Happiness is a wondrous commodity: the more you give, the more you have.
It is not enough to forgive; one must forget.
Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities.
A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it.