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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)

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Imagination

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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Some of my youthful readers are developing wonderful imaginations. This pleases me.

L. Frank Baum Introduction to The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)

There is an inverse relationship between imagination and money.

Alan Moore

An active imagination may find a bad tendency arising out of every transaction between imperfect morals.

Edward Hall Alderson Brownlow v. Egerton (1854)

Nothing is more dangerous to reason than the flights of the imagination, and nothing has been the occasion of more mistakes among philosophers.

David Hume A Treatise of Human Nature (1739)

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.