216 Quotes by Madame de Stael

Strangers are contemporary posterity. [Fr., Les etrangers sont la posterite contemporaine.]

Have you not observed that faith is generally strongest in those whose character may be called the weakest?

Mystery such as is given of God is beyond the power of human penetration, yet not in opposition to it.

Intellect does not attain its full force unless it attacks power.

Tombs decked by the arts can scarcely represent death as a formidable enemy; we do not, indeed, like the ancients, carve sports and dances in the sarcophagus, but thought is diverted from the bier by works that tell of immortality, even from the altar of death.

Society develops wit, but its contemplation alone forms genius.

Glory can be for a woman but the brilliant morning of happiness.

One must, in one's life, make a choice between boredom and suffering.

Genius inspires this thirst for fame: there is no blessing undesired by those to whom Heaven gave the means of winning it.