Tao Te Ching
Madame de Staël
(Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein)
1766 – 1817 CE
"The greatest woman of her time"
Powerful political advocate, “first woman of Europe,” fascinating conversationalist, "Napoleon's Nemesis," and preeminent authoress of the time; Madame de Staël inspired and encouraged the political opposition to the Reign of Terror and later to Napoleon and was banished for her efforts. A potent influence on European Romanticism and persuasive advocated of liberty, she sponsored and led salons, wrote novels, and important speeches. Praised by Tolstoy, her political influence advanced representative government, constitutionalism, and women’s rights. Her opposition to dictatorship brought her into intense conflict with Napoleon and she was considered—along with England and Russia—one of the 3 main forces against him. Struggling with opium addiction and suicidal depression, a close friendship with Juliette Récamier enabled her to continue and become—in Macaulay’s phrase—“the greatest woman of her time.”
Lineages
Artists French Politicians Women of Wisdom
Eras
Chinese
Qing dynasty (1644 – 1912 CE)Unlisted Sources
Corinne (1807)
Quotes by Madame de Staël (22 quotes)
“When a noble life welcomes old age, it is not the decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality… imagination pictures beyond the horizon an asylum of hope—a native land of love; and nature seems silently to repeat that man is immortal.”
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“Scientific progress makes moral progress a necessity; for if man’s power is increased, the checks that restrain him from abusing it must be strengthened.”
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“Democracy stimulates literature and retards art; aristocracies impose taste but frown upon enthusiasm and originality; absolute government stifles freedom, innovation, and thought.”
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“The human mind always makes progress, but it is a progress in spirals.”
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“As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely… To understand everything makes one very tolerant… Who understands much, forgives much.”
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“The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes.”
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“Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all notion of time; effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end.”
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“The origin of all women may be called celestial, for their power is the offspring of the gifts of Nature; but, by yielding to pride and ambition they soon destroy the magic of their charms.”
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“The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.”
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“The greatest happiness is to transform one's feelings into action.”
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“One must choose in life between boredom and suffering.”
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“The soul is a fire that darts its rays through all the senses; it is in this fire that existence consists; all the observations and all the efforts of philosophers ought to turn towards this Me, the centre and moving power of our sentiments and our ideas.”
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“Have you not observed that faith is generally strongest in those whose character may be called the weakest?”
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“We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love.”
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“Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty.”
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“Wit consists in knowing the resemblance of things that differ, and the difference of things that are alike.”
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“When we destroy an old prejudice we have need of a new virtue.”
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“[People] don’t change, they unmask themselves.”
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“Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts.”
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“Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.”
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“A proposition expressed in numbers is definitely false or true. In all other relations, the truth is so mingled with the false that often only instinct can help us to decide among virtuous influences, sometimes equally as strong in one direction as in the other.”
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“Music revives the recollections it would appease.”
from Corinne (1807)
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Quotes about Madame de Staël (2 quotes)
“There is scarcely an idea of the 18th century which [her books] don't transmit, scarcely an idea of the 20th century which they don't contain in germ.”
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“That woman teaches people to think who never took to it before, or have forgotten how.”
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