Life often seems like a long shipwreck of which the debris are friendship, glory, and love. - The shores of existence are strewn with them.
Madame de StaelThere is no reality on this earth except religion and the power of love; all the rest is even more fugitive than life itself.
Madame de StaelWhatever efforts one may make, one must revert to the realization that religion is the real basis of morality; religion is the real and perceptible purpose within us, which alone, can turn aside our attention from things. ... The science of morality can no more teach human beings to be honest, in all the magnificence of this word, than geometry can teach one how to draw.
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 Stael