Madame de Stael

France
22 Apr 1766 // 14 Jul 1817
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I learnt life from the poets
Genius inspires this thirst for fame: there is no blessing undesired by those to whom Heaven gave the means of winning it
To pray together, in whatever tongue or ritual, is the most tender brotherhood of hope and sympathy that men can contract in this life
A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn
Love is the emblem of eternity: it confounds all notion of time: effaces all memory of a beginning , all fear of an end
Music revives the recollections it would appease
Only the refined and delicate pleasures that spring from research and education can build up barriers between different ranks
Where no interest is takes in science, literature and liberal pursuits, mere facts and insignificant criticisms necessarily become the themes of discourse; and minds, strangers alike to activity and meditation, become so limited as to render all intercourse with them at once tasteless and oppressive
When once enthusiasm has been turned into ridicule, everything is undone except money and power
When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not the decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality
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