Madame de Stael Quotes
Born: April 22, 1766
Germaine de Staël, a luminary of the Romantic era, defied Napoleon’s tyranny and society’s constraints to champion the radical power of individual expression. As a novelist, salonnière, and philosopher, she argued that art and creativity were the lifeblood of civilization—forces that could liberate the human spirit from political and social bondage. Her quotes resonate because they are battle cries for authenticity, urging us to see art not as decoration but as a moral necessity. De Staël’s legacy endures as a testament to the revolutionary act of thinking freely, feeling deeply, and creating without apology.
Madame de Stael Quotes (28)
"One must choose in life between boredom and suffering."
— Madame De Stael"The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man."
— Madame De Stael"In matters of the heart, nothing is true except the improbable."
— Madame De Stael"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."
— Madame De Stael"The human mind always makes progress, but it is a progress in spirals."
— Madame De Stael"We cease loving ourselves if no one loves us."
— Madame De Stael"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."
— Madame De Stael"The more I see of men the more I like dogs."
— Madame De Stael"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."
— Madame De Stael"A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it."
— Madame De Stael"Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities."
— Madame De Stael"Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts."
— Madame De Stael"The greatest happiness is to transform one's feelings into action."
— Madame De Stael"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."
— Madame De Stael"Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty."
— Madame De Stael"That past which is so presumptuously brought forward as a precedent for the present, was itself founded on some past that went before it."
— Madame De Stael"Wit consists in knowing the resemblance of things that differ, and the difference of things that are alike."
— Madame De Stael"Sow good services: sweet remembrances will grow from them."
— Madame De Stael"Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak."
— Madame De Stael"When a noble life has prepared for old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality."
— Madame De Stael"The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes."
— Madame De Stael"Wit lies in recognizing the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things which are alike."
— Madame De Stael"To be totally understanding makes one very indulgent."
— Madame De Stael"Love is the whole history of a woman's life, it is but an episode in a man's."
— Madame De Stael"Speech happens to not be his language."
— Madame De Stael"The sense of this word among the Greeks affords the noblest definition of it; enthusiasm signifies God in us."
— Madame De Stael"A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn."
— Madame De Stael"Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it."
— Madame De Stael