Life resembles Gobelin tapestry; you do not see the canvass on the right side; but when you turn it, the threads are visible.
Madame de StaelConscience is doubtless sufficient to conduct the coldest character into the road of virtue; but enthusiasm is to conscience what honor is to duty; there is in us a superfluity of soul, which it is sweet to consecrate to the beautiful when the good has been accomplished.
Madame de StaelLife 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 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