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

— Anne Louise Germaine de Staël Misattributed

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Source, in full

Probably a paraphrase of this line from De l’Allemagne, Pt. 3. ch. 10. "Goethe has made a remark upon the perfectability of the human mind, which is full of sagacity: It is always advancing, but in a spiral line." Not known from Goethe's works.

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More quotes by Anne Louise Germaine de Staël

Wit lies in recognizing the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things which are alike.

De l’Allemagne [Germany (1813)

Let us then blend everything: love, religion, genius, with sunshine, perfume, music, and poetry.

Corinne (1807)

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

Corinne (1807)

Religion is nothing, if it is not everything; if existence is not filled with it.

De l’Allemagne [Germany (1813)

Ought not every woman, like every man, to follow the bent of her own talents?

Corinne (1807)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Anne Louise Germaine de Staël (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.