Germaine de Staël Quotes

It seems to me that life's circumstances, being ephemeral, teach us less about durable truths than the fictions based on those truths; and that the best lessons of delicacy and self-respect are to be found in novels where the feelings are so naturally portrayed that you fancy you are witnessing real life as you read.

Understanding everything makes one very indulgent.

Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities.

A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it.

Ought not every woman, like every man, to follow the bent of her own talents?

If we would succeed in works of the imagination, we must offer a mild morality in the midst of rigid manners; but where the manners are corrupt, we must consistently hold up to view an austere morality.

The rules are only barriers to keep children from falling.

Danger is like wine, it goes to your head.

La recherche de la vérité est la plus noble des occupations, et sa publication un devoir.

Madame de Staël thought it was pride in mankind to endeavour to penetrate the secret of the universe; and speaking of the higher metaphysics she said: "I prefer the Lord's Prayer to it all."

Religion is nothing, if it is not everything; if existence is not filled with it.

We cease loving ourselves if no one loves us.