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 StaelNature, who permits no two leaves to be exactly alike, has given a still greater diversity to human minds. Imitation, then, is a double murder; for it deprives both copy and original of their primitive existence.
Madame de StaelThe sight of such a monument is like continual and stationary music, which one hears for one's good as one approaches it.
Madame de Stael[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.
Madame de Stael