You [America] are the vanguard of the human race. You are the world’s future. - Germaine de Staël

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."

Superstition attaches to this life, and religion to the next; superstition is allied to fatality, and religion to virtue; it is from the vivacity of earthly desires that we become superstitious, and it is, on the contrary, by the sacrifice of these same desires that we are religious.

L'amour est l'histoire de la vie des femmes; c'est un épisode dans celle des hommes.