Where 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 StaelLove 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 StaelAnyone who can see as far as tomorrow in politics arouses the wrath of people who can see no farther than today.
Madame de StaelThe sense of this word among the Greeks affords the noblest definition of it; enthusiasm signifies 'God in us.'
Madame de StaelConversation as talent exists only in France. In other countries, conversation provides politeness, discussion, and friendship; in France, it is an art for which imagination and soul are certainly very welcome, but which can also provide its own secret remedies to compensate you for the absence of either or both, if you so desire.
Madame de Stael