Madame de Stael's Quotes

The human mind always makes progress, but it is a progress in spirals.

We cease loving ourselves if no one loves us.

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.

Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end.

One must choose in life between boredom and suffering.

The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.

Scientific progress makes moral progress a necessity; for if man's power is increased, the checks that restrain him from abusing it must be strengthened.

Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts.

A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn.

Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty.

The more I see of men the more I like dogs.

Love is the whole history of a woman's life, it is but an episode in a man's.

Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak.

The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes.

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

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

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

Wit lies in recognizing the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things which are alike.

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

Sow good services: sweet remembrances will grow from them.

Speech happens to not be his language.

The greatest happiness is to transform one's feelings into action.

The sense of this word among the Greeks affords the noblest definition of it; enthusiasm signifies God in us.