Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach quotes:

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  • The poor man wishes to conceal his poverty, and the rich man his wealth: the former fears lest he be despised, the latter lest he be plundered.

  • Authors from whom others steal should not complain, but rejoice. Where there is no game there are no poachers.

  • An intelligent woman has millions of born enemies... all the stupid men.

  • He who believes in freedom of the will has never loved and never hated.

  • None are so eager to gain new experience as those who don't know how to make use of the old ones.

  • Exceptions are not always the proof of the old rule; they can also be the harbinger of a new one.

  • If you have one good idea, people will lend you twenty.

  • We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don't care for.

  • Wit is an intermittent fountain; kindness is a perennial spring.

  • Fools usually know best that which the wise despair of ever comprehending.

  • We don't believe in rheumatism and true love until after the first attack.

  • Whenever two good people argue over principles, they are both right.

  • The sympathy of most people consists of a mixture of good-humour, curiosity, and self-importance.

  • Imaginary evils are incurable.

  • Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.

  • There are very few honest friends--the demand is not particularly great.

  • Many think they have a kind heart who have only weak nerves.

  • Misanthropy is a suit of armor lined with thorns.

  • Privilege is the greatest enemy of right.

  • The world belongs to those who possess it, and is scorned by those to whom it should belong.

  • As far as your self-control goes, as far goes your freedom.

  • None are so inconsiderate as those who demand nothing of life other than their own personal comfort.

  • A book cannot easily be too bad for the general public, but may easily be too good.

  • Little evil would be done in the world if evil never could be done in the name of good.

  • Not reading a beautiful book again because you've already read it, that is, as if you were not visiting a dear friend again because you know him already.

  • What delights us in visible beauty is the invisible.

  • I regret nothing, says arrogance; I will regret nothing, says inexperience.

  • Nothing is so often and so irrevocably missed as the opportunity which crops up daily.

  • To be content with little is hard; to be content with much, impossible.

  • "People's minds are trained largely at the expense of their hearts." This is not so; it is only that there are more educable minds than there are educable hearts.

  • A defeat borne with pride is also a victory.

  • A man with lofty ideas is an uncomfortable neighbor.

  • Accident is veiled necessity.

  • Age either transfigures or petrifies.

  • All that is due to us will be paid, although not perhaps by those to whom we have lent.

  • An aphorism is the last link in a long chain of thought.

  • An opinion may be controverted; a prejudice, never.

  • Be the first to say something obvious and achieve immortality.

  • Believe flatterers and you're lost; believe your enemies and you despair.

  • Between being able to and actually doing something lies an ocean, and on its bottom rests all too often the wreck of willpower.

  • Beware of the virtue which a man boasts is his.

  • Blessed is trust, for it blesses both those who have it to give and those who receive it.

  • Calmness is the graceful form of Confidence.

  • Conquer but never triumph.

  • Conquer, but don't triumph.

  • Consider once before you give, twice before you receive, and a thousand times before you ask.

  • Consider well before you immerse yourself in solitude whether your own company will be good for you.

  • Deep learning doesn't shine.

  • Distrust your judgment the moment you can discern the shadow of a personal motive in it.

  • Do not consider yourself deprived because your dreams were not fulfilled; the truly deprived have never dreamed.

  • Do not fear the ones who argue, but rather those who are evasive.

  • Enthusiasm does not always speak for those who arouse it, but always for those who experience it.

  • Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

  • Even a stopped clock is right twice every day. After some years, it can boast of a long series of successes.

  • Even virtue is an art; and even its devotees are divided into those who practise it and those who are merely amateurs.

  • Generosity, to be perfect, should always be accompanied by a dash of humor.

  • Genius points the way, talent takes it.

  • Grace is the outcome of inward harmony.

  • Happy slaves are the bitterest enemies of freedom

  • Hatred is a prolific vice; envy, a barren vice.

  • Have patience with the quarrelsomeness of the stupid. It is not easy to comprehend that one does not comprehend.

  • He who has trusted where he ought not will surely mistrust where he ought not.

  • He who says patience, says courage, endurance, strength.

  • How happy are the pessimists! What joy is theirs when they have proved there is no joy.

  • How wise must one be to be always kind.

  • However much you paid for a beautiful illusion, you got a bargain.

  • If there be a faith that can move mountains, it is faith in one's own power.

  • If there is a believe that is capable to move mountains it is the believe in our own strength.

  • In this world, all power rests upon force.

  • In youth we learn; in age we understand.

  • Indifference of every kind is reprehensible, even indifference towards one's self.

  • It is unfortunate that superior talent and superior men are so seldom united.

  • It's bad enough when married people bore one another, but it's much worse when only one of them bores the other.

  • Kindness which is not inexhaustible does not deserve the name.

  • Many priceless things can be bought.

  • Many think that when they have confessed a fault there is no need of correcting it.

  • Morals refine manners, as manners refine morals.

  • Most imitators attempt the inimitable.

  • Never expect women to be sincere, so long as they are educated to think that their first aim in life is to please.

  • Never strive, O artist, to create what you are not irresistibly impelled to create!

  • New happiness too must be learned to bear.

  • No one is so eager to gain new experiences as he who doesn't know how to make use of the old ones.

  • Nobody knows enough, but many know too much.

  • Not every great man is a grand human being.

  • Not what we experience, but how we perceive what we experience, determines our fate.

  • Nothing is less promising than precocity. A young thistle is more like a future tree than is a young oak.

  • Nothing is so irretrievably missed as an opportunity we encounter every day.

  • Nothing makes us more cowardly and unconscionable than the desire to be loved by everyone.

  • Nowadays people are born to find fault. When they look at Achilles, they see only his heel.

  • Oh happy pessimists! What a joy it is to them to be able to prove again and again that there is no joy.

  • Old age transfigures or fossilizes.

  • One can acquire some virtues by feigning them for a long time.

  • One has to do good in order for it to exist in the world.

  • One of the main goals of self-education is to eradicate that vanity in us without which we would never have been educated.

  • One remains young as long as one can still learn, can still take on new habits, can bear contradictions.

  • One thought cannot awake without awakening others.

  • Only the thinking man lives his life, the thoughtless man's life passes him by.

  • Only those few people who practice it believe in goodness.

  • Origins are of the greatest importance. We are almost reconciled to having a cold when we remember where we caught it.

  • Our greatest indulgence towards a man springs from our despair of him.

  • Pain is the great teacher of mankind. Beneath its breath souls develop.

  • Parents forgive their children least readily for the faults they themselves instilled in them.

  • Passion is always suffering, even when gratified.

  • People more easily tolerate opposition than a contradiction

  • Runners are poor walkers.

  • Since the well-known victory over the hare by the tortoise, the descendants of the tortoise think themselves miracles of speed.

  • So soon as a fashion is universal, it is out of date.

  • That bad manners are so prevalent in the world is the fault of good manners.

  • The believer who has never doubted will hardly convert a doubter.

  • The greatest enemy of justice is privilege.

  • The incurable ills are the imaginary ills.

  • The insignificant labor; the great create.

  • The little bit of truth contained in many a lie is what makes them so terrible.

  • The manuscript in the drawer either rots or ripens.

  • The mediocre always feel as if they're fighting for their lives when confronted by the excellent.

  • The moral code which was good enough for our fathers is not good enough for our children.

  • The poor never estimate as a virtue the generosity of the rich.

  • The simplest and most familiar truth seems new and wonderful the instant we ourselves experience it for the first time.

  • The understanding of some men is clear, that of others brilliant. The former illumines its surroundings; the latter obscures them.

  • The wise man is seldom prudent.

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