“When men do wrong, it is out of hardness; when women do wrong, it is out of weakness.”
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne
Bk. 6, ch. 3
Corinne (1807)
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne
Bk. 8, ch. 2, as translated by Isabel Hill (1833)
Variant translation: It is certainly through love that eternity can be understood; it confuses all thoughts about time; it destroys the ideas of beginning and end; one thinks one has always been in love with the person one loves, so difficult is it to conceive that one could live without him.
As translated by Sylvia Raphael (1998)
Corinne (1807)
“Be happy, but be so by piety.”
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne
Bk. 20, ch. 3
Corinne (1807)
“Atheism exists only in coldness, selfishness, and baseness.”
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne
Bk. 10, ch. 5
Corinne (1807)
“Let us then blend everything: love, religion, genius, with sunshine, perfume, music, and poetry.”
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne
Bk. 10, ch. 5
Corinne (1807)
“Understanding everything makes one very indulgent.”
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne
Tout comprendre rend très-indulgent.
Bk. 18, ch. 5
Corinne (1807)
“Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.”
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne
Bk. 7, ch. 1
Corinne (1807)
“A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn.”
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne
Bk. 10, ch. 5
Corinne (1807)
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne
Bk. 13, ch. 4, as translated by Letitia Elizabeth Landon for Isabel Hill (1833)
Corinne (1807)
“All that is natural is varied.”
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne
Tout ce qui est naturel est varié.
Bk. 1, ch. 4
Corinne (1807)
“Ought not every woman, like every man, to follow the bent of her own talents?”
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne
Bk. 14, ch. 1
Corinne (1807)
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne
La vue d'un tel monument est comme une musique continuelle et fixée, qui vous attend pour vous faire du bien quand vous vous en approchez.
Bk. 4, ch. 3
The idea that "architecture is frozen music" — an aphorism of disputed origin sometimes misattributed to de Staël — is found in a number of German writers of the period.
Corinne (1807)
“Danger is like wine, it goes to your head.”
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël book Corinne
Bk. 12, ch. 2
Corinne (1807)
