Madame de Stael quote: "That past which is so presumptuously brought forward as a precedent for the present, was itself founded on some past that went before it."

Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning a...
MADAME DE STAEL

The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes.
MADAME DE STAEL

Sow good services: sweet remembrances will grow from them.
MADAME DE STAEL

Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.
MADAME DE STAEL

Wit consists in knowing the resemblance of things that differ, and the difference of things that are...
MADAME DE STAEL

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

Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation, the source of strength is one's self. When one pr...
MADAME DE STAEL

To be totally understanding makes one very indulgent.
MADAME DE STAEL

Wit lies in recognizing the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things ...
MADAME DE STAEL

Love is the whole history of a woman's life, it is but an episode in a man's.
MADAME DE STAEL

Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty.
MADAME DE STAEL

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

The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it...
MADAME DE STAEL

Scientific progress makes moral progress a necessity; for if man's power is increased, the check...
MADAME DE STAEL

We cease loving ourselves if no one loves us.
MADAME DE STAEL

One must choose in life between boredom and suffering.
MADAME DE STAEL

Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts.
MADAME DE STAEL

In matters of the heart, nothing is true except the improbable.
MADAME DE STAEL

When a noble life has prepared for old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of...
MADAME DE STAEL

A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn.
MADAME DE STAEL

Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak.
MADAME DE STAEL

The more I see of men the more I like dogs.
MADAME DE STAEL

The greatest happiness is to transform one's feelings into action.
MADAME DE STAEL

The human mind always makes progress, but it is a progress in spirals.
MADAME DE STAEL

We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love.
MADAME DE STAEL

The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.
MADAME DE STAEL

Sow good services; sweet remembrances will grow them.
MADAME DE STAEL

Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts
MADAME DE STAEL

Wit consists in seeing the resemblance between things which differ, and the difference between thing...
MADAME DE STAEL

The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes
MADAME DE STAEL

Scientific progress makes moral progress a necessity; for if man's power is increased, the checks th...
MADAME DE STAEL

One must chose in life between boredom and suffering
MADAME DE STAEL

Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation, the source of strength is one's self. When one prays,...
MADAME DE STAEL

A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn
MADAME DE STAEL

One must, in one's life, make a choice between boredom and suffering
MADAME DE STAEL

In matters of the heart, nothing is true except the improbable
MADAME DE STAEL

To understand everything makes one very indulgent
MADAME DE STAEL

Love is the emblem of eternity: it confounds all notion of time: effaces all memory of a beginning, ...
MADAME DE STAEL

The greatest happiness is to transform one's feelings into action
MADAME DE STAEL

Love is the whole history of a woman's life, it is but an episode in a man's.
MADAME DE STAEL

The sense of this word among the Greeks affords the noblest definition of it; enthusiasm signifies G...
MADAME DE STAEL

A happy accident.
MADAME DE STAEL (BARONNE ANNE LOUISE GERMAINE DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN)

Strangers are contemporary posterity. [Fr., Les etrangers sont la posterite contemporaine.]
MADAME DE STAEL (BARONNE ANNE LOUISE GERMAINE DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN)

Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all notion of time; effaces all memory of a beginning, ...
GERMAINE DE STAEL

We cease loving ourselves if no one loves us.
GERMAINE DE STAEL

When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of imm...
GERMAINE DE STAEL

The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.
GERMAINE DE STAEL

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

Wit lies in recognizing the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things ...
GERMAINE DE STAEL

The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it...
GERMAINE DE STAEL

The sense of this word among the Greeks affords the noblest definition of it; enthusiasm signifies G...
GERMAINE DE STAEL

Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.
GERMAINE DE STAEL

Sow good services: sweet remembrances will grow from them.
GERMAINE DE STAEL

One must chose in life between boredom and suffering.
MME. DE STAEL

When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of i...
GERMAINE DE STAEL

I'd marry again if I found a man who had 15 million and would sign over half of it to me before the ...
MADAME DE RIEUX

There is an important difference between love and friendship. While the former delights in extremes ...
MADAME DE MAINTENON

Marriage is a lottery in which men stake their liberty and women their happiness.
MADAME DE RIEUX

The pleasures of the world are deceitful; they promise more than they give. They trouble us in seeki...
MADAME DE LAMBERT

Modesty is the chastity of merit, the virginity of noble souls.
MADAME DE GIRARDIN

The true way to soften one's troubles is to solace those of others.
MADAME DE MAINTENON

Instinct is the nose of the mind.
MADAME DE GIRARDIN

The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes.
MADAME DE STA

Never refuse any advance of friendship, for if nine out of ten bring you nothing, one alone may repa...
MADAME DE TENCIN

A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn.
MADAME DE STA‘L

The pleasures of the world are deceitful; they promise more than they give. They trouble us in seek...
MADAME DE LAMBERT

Nothing is more adroit than irreproachable conduct
MADAME DE MAINTENON

The greatest wisdom consists in knowing one's own follies.
MADAME DE SABLé

Do you belong to anyone?" he asked.
"No," she whispered.
"Good, because tonight, you belon...
MADAME DE BOUDOIR

Perseverance and audacity generally win.
MADAME DOROTHéE DE LUZY

The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that i...
ANNE LOUISE GERMAINE DE STAEL

Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all notion of time; effaces all memory of a beginning...
ANNE LOUISE GERMAINE DE STAEL

The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.
ANNE LOUISE GERMAINE DE STAEL

The best advice on the art of being happy is about as easy to follow as advice to be well when one i...
MADAME SWETCHINE

The ideal friendship is to feel as one while remaining two.
MADAME SWETCHINE

How easy to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success.
MADAME SWETCHINE

Where love and wisdom drink out of the same cup, in this everyday world, it is the exception.
MADAME NECKAR

There are two ways of attaining an important end, force and perseverance; the silent power of the la...
MADAME SWETCHINE

We are rich only through what we give; and poor only through we refuse and keep.
MADAME SWETCHINE

In this world of change naught which comes stays and naught which goes is lost.
MADAME SWETCHINE

We expect everything and are prepared for nothing.
MADAME SWETCHINE

One must be a somebody before they can have a enemy. One must be a force before he can be resisted b...
MADAME SWETCHINE

Repentance is accepted remorse.
MADAME SWETCHINE

Sentiment is the ripened fruit of fantasy.
MADAME BELAZY

To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self.
MADAME NECKAR

Rules of society are nothing; ones conscience is the umpire.
MADAME DUDEVANT

Much misconstruction and bitterness are spared to him who thinks naturally upon what he owes to othe...
MADAME GUIZOT

We reform others unconsciously when we walk uprightly.
MADAME SWETCHINE

It is only after an unknown number of unrecorded labors, after a host of noble hearts have succumbed...
MADAME GUIZOT

We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more.
MADAME SWETCHINE

Strength alone knows conflict, weakness is born vanquished.
MADAME SWETCHINE

Our vanity is the constant enemy of our dignity.
MADAME SWETCHINE

Youth should be a savings bank.
MADAME SWETCHINE

Those who have suffered much are like those who know many languages; they have learned to understand...
MADAME SWETSHINE

We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more. -...
MADAME SWETCHINE

The quarrels of lovers are like summer storms. Everything is more beautiful when they have passed.
MADAME NECKER

Sentiment is the ripened fruit of fantasy
MADAME BELAZY

He who finds elevated and lofty pleasure in the feeling of poetry is a true poet, though he never co...
MADAME DUDEVANT

We cease loving ourselves if no one loves us.
MADAME DE STA&EUML;L

We believe at once in evil, we only believe in good upon reflection. Is this not sad?
MADAME DOROTHE DELUZY

One crime is everything, two is nothing.
MADAME DOROTHE DELUZY

It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.
MADAME DOROTHE DELUZY

Perseverance and audacity generally win!
MADAME DOROTHE DELUZY

We believe at once in evil, we only believe in good upon reflection. Is this not sad?
MADAME DOROTHéE DELUZY

You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us m...
MADAME MARIE CURIE

All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.
MADAME MARIE CURIE

It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.
MADAME DOROTHéE DELUZY

We believe at once in evil, we only believe in good upon reflection. Is this not sad?.
MADAME DOROTHé DELUZY

It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend
MADAME DOROTHEE DELUZY

There is one antidote only for coquetry, and that is true love
MADAME DOROTHEE DELUZY

A coquette is a woman without any heart, who makes a fool of a man that hasn't got any head
MADAME DOROTHEE DELUZY

Every clique is a refuge for incompetence. It fosters corruption and disloyalty, it begets cowardice...
MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK

There is no shadow of protection to be had by sheltering behind the slender stockades of visionary s...
MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK

We write our own destiny; we become what we do.
MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK

We live in the present, we dream of the future and we learn eternal truths from the past.
MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK

Of all the inventions that have helped to unify China perhaps the airplane is the most outstanding. ...
MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK

Women are never stronger than when they arm themselves with their weaknesses
MADAME MARIE DU DEFFAND

Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation the source of strength is one's self. When one prays...
MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK

Don't be disquieted in time of adversity. Be firm with dignity and self-reliant with vigor.
MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK

The distance is nothing it is only the first step that costs
MADAME MARIE DU DEFFAND

I am convinced that we must train not only the head, but the heart and hand as well.
MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK

My good health is due to a soup made of white doves. It is simply wonderful as a tonic.
MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK

The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult.
MADAME MARIE DU DEFFAND

Shallow men speak of the past; wise men of the present and fools of the future
MADAME MARIE DU DEFFAND

The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that costs. [Fr., La distance n'y fait rien; il...
MADAME MARIE ANNE DU DEFFAND

What more would you have? He has invented history. [Fr., Que voulez-vous de plus? Il a invente l...
MADAME MARIE ANNE DU DEFFAND

It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend. -Madame Dorothée Deluzy.
MADAME DOROTH&EACUTE;E DELUZY

Women made us lose paradise, but how frequently we find it again in their arms
DE FINOD

The more I saw of foreign countries the more I loved my own.
DE DELLOY

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.
DE CHATEAUBRIAND

Peace is a natural effect of trade.
DE MONTESQUIEU

If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.
DE MONTESQUIEU

Commerce is the cure for the most destructive prejudices.
DE MONTESQUIEU

In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also is despotic governments: in the fo...
DE MONTESQUIEU

There is a French saying: ''Love is the dawn of marriage, and marriage is the sunset of love.''
DE FINOD

We would prefer to see a more expedient transfer of properties and the backlog ? being cleared.
DE RAUVILLE

Hope is the gay skylarking pajamas we wear over yesterday's bruises
DE CASSERES

There has been softening in share prices after March month end.
DE RAUVILLE

To remain virtuous a man has only to combat his own desires; a woman must resist her own inclination...
DE LATENA

Most of those children don't have one-tenth of the opportunity my children had, and I don't think th...
DE KNUDSON

I am extremely supportive of communities being able to make their own decisions regarding tobacco, a...
DE KNUDSON

I believe there are many dysfunctional families in our community. I am particularly concerned about ...
DE KNUDSON

Many of the students want to come back tomorrow. My hope is to introduce history to all of the stude...
DE HEARN

It was a good education for the students.
DE HEARN

We wanted the students to recognize and participate in the unique history of Wall. Students should h...
DE HEARN

All bow to virtue, and then walk away
DE FINOD

One of the greatest sources of suffering is to have an inborn sense of honor
DE CASSERES

How intoxicating is the triumph of beauty, and how right it is to name it queen of the universe! Ho...
DE SURIN

It is completely unacceptable how patients are treated by some of the staff and something has to be ...
DE LANGE

Indolence is the sleep of the mind. [Fr., L'indolence est le sommeil des esprits.]
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

It is difficult to esteem a man as highly as he would wish. [Fr., Il est difficile d'estimer quelq...
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

There is nothing one sees oftener than the ridiculous and magnificent, such close neighbors that th...
BERNARD DE BOVIER DE FONTENELLE

Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it inflames the great.
ROGER DE RABUTIN DE BUSSY

The maxims of men reveal their characters. [Fr., Les maximes des hommes decelent leur coeur.]
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

Obscurity is the realm of error. [Fr., L'obscurite est le royaume de l'erreur.]
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

Clearness ornaments profound thoughts. [Fr., La clarte orne les pensees profondes.]
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

An optimist is a man who plant two acorns and buy a hammock.
JEAN DE LATTRE DE TASSIGNY

Clearness marks the sincerity of philosophers. [Fr., La clarte est la bonne foi des philosophes.]
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

The wicked are always surprised to find ability in the good. [Fr., Les merchants sont toujours sur...
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

Prosperity makes few friends. [Fr., La proserite fait peu d'amis.]
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of pleasures. [Fr., Le fruit du travail est le plus d...
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

Clearness ornaments profound thoughts.
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

The conscience of the dying belies their life.
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

It is difficult to esteem a man as highly as he would wish.
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of pleasures.
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

When a thought is too weak to be expressed simply, it is a proof that it should be rejected.
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

Prosperity makes few friends.
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

The maxims of men reveal their characters.
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

To execute great things, one should live as though one would never die.
LUC DE CLAPIER DE VAUVANARGUES

Do not hold everything as gold which shines like gold.
ALANUS DE INSULUS (ALAIN DE L'ISLE)

Who knows but that hereafter some traveller like myself will sit down upon the banks of the Seine, ...
CONSTANTIN FRANCOIS DE CHASSEBEOUF DE VOLNEY

When we have not what we love, we must love what we have. [Fr., Quand on n'a pas ce que l'on aime,...
ROGER DE BUSSY-RABUTIN (DE BUSSY)

A new maxim is often a brilliant error.
CHRETIEN-GUILLAUME DE LAMOIGNON DE MALESHERBES

We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.
CHRETIEN-GUILLAUME DE LAMOIGNON DE MALESHERBES

The human heart will never wrinkle.
MARIE DE RABUTIN-CHANTAL DE SéVIGNé

We have access to practical, ethical and scientifically established methods of birth control. So I t...
CHRISTIAN DE DUVE

Good painting is like good cooking; it can be tasted, but not explained.
MAURICE DE VLAMINCK

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
CHARLES DE MONTESQUIEU

Human morality is unthinkable without empathy.
FRANS DE WAAL

I am personally not against keeping animals at zoos, as they serve a huge educational purpose, but t...
FRANS DE WAAL

I was named Margaret Yvonne. 'Margaret' because my mother was very fond of one of the deriva...
YVONNE DE CARLO

I found I had the ability to do comedy. My timing was really inborn.
YVONNE DE CARLO

I'm from Hollywood; I'm too dumb to be nervous about New York.
YVONNE DE CARLO

Men, no matter what their promises, rarely leave their spouses... the louses.
YVONNE DE CARLO

I enjoyed being in 'The Ten Commandments.' That was a great experience - to suddenly become ...
YVONNE DE CARLO

I guess I lead a double life, and I must admit I'm happy with both.
YVONNE DE CARLO

After I made my hit in 'Salome,' Universal sent me to New York so I could learn to be a prop...
YVONNE DE CARLO

The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her...
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

I hope to see the bringing together of all the best educated people of the earth into a worldwide Co...
MARQUIS DE CONDORCET

If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from ro...
THOMAS DE QUINCEY

Valor lies just halfway between rashness and cowardice.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

I directed the men in our barque to approach near the savages, and hold their arms in readiness to d...
SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

I've always been a geek, so I've always used the Internet, perhaps at first for autopromotio...
TATIANA DE ROSNAY

When you grew up in France in the 1970s and 80s, the Vel' d'Hiv wasn't part of the histo...
TATIANA DE ROSNAY

Sometimes I get to see a movie that's adapted from a book that I haven't heard about or that...
TATIANA DE ROSNAY

I'm a writer. I'm not an actress.
TATIANA DE ROSNAY

I think books and movies are going to go a long way together in the future. I think we writers are v...
TATIANA DE ROSNAY

There are two of my favorite books, 'The Great Gatsby' and 'Gone With The Wind', tha...
TATIANA DE ROSNAY

I'm used to promoting books, but a movie is a very different thing. You have to go to film festi...
TATIANA DE ROSNAY

It's a complicated process being so bilingual. Sometimes it's a mere word or sentence that c...
TATIANA DE ROSNAY

That past which is so presumptuously brought forward as a precedent for the present, was itself founded on some past that went before it.

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Madame de Stael

That past which is so presumptuously brought forward as a precedent for the present, was itself founded on some past that went before it.

Madame de Stael

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