“If we would succeed in works of the imagination, we must offer a mild morality in the midst of rigid manners; but where the manners are corrupt, we must consistently hold up to view an austere morality.”

—  Anne Louise Germaine de Staël

The Influence of Literature upon Society (1800), Pt. 2, ch. 5

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If we would succeed in works of the imagination, we must offer a mild morality in the midst of rigid manners; but where…" by Anne Louise Germaine de Staël?
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël photo
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël 42
Swiss author 1766–1817

Related quotes

Ananda Mahidol photo

“One must know what is right and wrong and what is good and what is bad and what should be done and what should not be done. As well as manners, we must force our hearts to always be in good morals.”

Ananda Mahidol (1925–1946) eighth monarch of Siam from the Chakri dynasty as Rama VIII

Source: "Speech while conferring degree certificates to the graduating students of Chulalongkorn University" http://www.memohall.chula.ac.th/article/%E0%B8%81/ (13 April 1946)

Sri Aurobindo photo

“Politics is the work of the Kshatriya and it is the virtues of the Kshatriya we must develop if we are to be morally fit for freedom.”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

Bande Mataram, 1907
India's Rebirth

Jeff Flake photo

“Acting on conscience and principle in a manner — is the manner — in which we express our moral selves and as such, loyalty to conscience and principle should supersede loyalty to any man or party.”

Jeff Flake (1962) American politician

Speech in the U.S. Senate (2017)

Audre Lorde photo

“Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose
the time, and the arena, and the manner of our revolution,
but more usually
we must do battle where we are standing.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Norman Lamm photo

“… a moral consideration of the utmost importance for us: we must respect individual differences, yet we must coordinate, work together, and act as one.”

Norman Lamm (1927) American rabbi

Seventy faces: articles of faith (2002)

Arthur Conan Doyle photo

“We must look for consistency. Where there is a want of it we must suspect deception.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

Source: The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes: Volume 1

William Wordsworth photo

“We must be free or die, who speak the tongue
That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold
Which Milton held.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

It Is Not to Be Thought Of, l. 11 (1807).

Felix Frankfurter photo

“Morals are three-quarters manners.”

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge

Source: Other writings, Felix Frankfurter Reminisces (1960), P. 12. In the interview, Phillips quotes the line to Frankfurter from a letter written by the Justice, and Frankfurter attributes the phrase to a friend named Matthew Arnold.

Adolphe Quetelet photo

“We must conceive the same distinctions in the moral world.”

Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874) Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist

Preface of M. Quetelet
A Treatise on Man and the Development of His Faculties (1842)
Context: Limits... seem to me of two kinds, ordinary or natural, and extraordinary or beyond the natural. The first limits comprise within them the qualities which deviate more or less from the mean, without attracting attention by excess on one side or the other. When the deviations become greater, they constitute the extraordinary class, having itself its limits, on the outer verge of which are things preternatural... We must conceive the same distinctions in the moral world.

Horace Mann photo

“Manners easily and rapidly mature into morals.”

Horace Mann (1796–1859) American politician

The Common School Journal Vol. IX, No. 12 (15 June 1847), p. 181
Context: Manners easily and rapidly mature into morals. As childhood advances to manhood, the transition from bad manners to bad morals is almost imperceptible. Vulgar and obscene forms of speech keep vulgar and obscene objects before the mind, engender impure images in the imagination, and make unlawful desires prurient. From the prevalent state of the mind, actions proceed, as water rises from a fountain.

Related topics