[On Italian:] One may almost call it a language that talks of itself, and always seems more witty than its speakers.
Madame de Stael... in the history of the human mind there has never been a useful thought or a profound truth that has not found its century and admirers.
Madame de StaelScientific 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 Staelthere is not enough interest in life to spread over twenty-four hours when one can't sleep.
Madame de StaelThat 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 StaelIt is obvious that the most despotic forms of social organization would be suitable for inert men who are satisfied with the situation fate has placed them in, and that the most abstract form of democratic theory would be practicable among sages guided only by their reason. The only problem is to what degree it is possible to excite or to contain the passions without endangering public happiness.
Madame de StaelHowever old a conjugal union, it still garners some sweetness. Winter has some cloudless days, and under the snow a few flowers still bloom.
Madame de StaelThere are women vain of advantages not connected with their persons, such as birth, rank, and fortune; it is difficult to feel less the dignity of the sex. The origin of all women may be called celestial, for their power is the offspring of the gifts of Nature; by yielding to pride and ambition they soon destroy the magic of their charms.
Madame de StaelWhere no interest is takes in science, literature and liberal pursuits, mere facts and insignificant criticisms necessarily become the themes of discourse; and minds, strangers alike to activity and meditation, become so limited as to render all intercourse with them at once tasteless and oppressive.
Madame de StaelWhen women oppose themselves to the projects and ambition of men, they excite their lively resentment; if in their youth they meddle with political intrigues, their modesty must suffer.
Madame de StaelI do not want an echo of myself from my children. I do not want to hear from them merely the reverberation of my own voice.
Madame de StaelLife teaches much, but to all thinking persons it brings ever closer the will of God - not because their faculties decline, but on the contrary, because they increase.
Madame de Stael[On Napoleon:] One has the impression of an imperious wind blowing about one's ears when one is near that man.
Madame de StaelSelf-love, so sensitive in its own cause, has rarely any sympathy to spare for others.
Madame de StaelMen have made of fortune an all-powerful goddess, in order that she may be made responsible for all their blunder's.
Madame de StaelA Gothic building engenders true religion ... The light, falling through colored glass, the singular forms of the architecture, unite to give a silent image of that infinite mystery which the soul for ever feels, and never comprehends.
Madame de StaelIt seems to me that we become more dear one to the other, in together admiring works of art, which speak to the soul by their true grandeur.
Madame de StaelThe study of history, it seems to me, leads to the conviction that all important events tend toward the same end - the civilization of mankind.
Madame de StaelHappy the land where the writers are sad, the merchants satisfied, the rich melancholic, and the populace content.
Madame de Stael[Ridicule] laughs at all those who see the earnestness of life and who still believe in true feelings and in serious thought ... It soils the hope of youth. Only shameless vice is above its reach.
Madame de Stael