Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach Quotes

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

There are times when to be reasonable is to be cowardly.

Passion is always suffering, even when gratified.

A man with lofty ideas is an uncomfortable neighbor.

One thought cannot awake without awakening others.

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

Nobody knows enough, but many know too much.

Imaginary evils are incurable.

What delights us in visible beauty is the invisible.

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

"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.

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

The wise man is seldom prudent.

To have and not to give is often worse than to steal.

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

With our parents we bury our past, with our children our future.

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

There is something so beautiful in trust that even the most hardened liar need feel a certain respect for those who confide in him.

Genius points the way, talent takes it.

You stay young as long as you can learn, acquire new habits, and suffer contradictions.

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

When two good men contend about principles, both are always right.

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

Many a truth is the result of an error.

What you wish to do you are apt to think you ought to do.

In meeting again after a separation, acquaintances ask after our outward life, friends after our inner life.

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

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.

There are women who love their husbands as blindly, as enthusiastically, and as enigmatically as nuns their cloister.

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

Not every great man is a grand human being.

Many priceless things can be bought.

Conquer, but don't triumph.

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

Deep learning doesn't shine.

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

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

When curiosity turns to serious matters, it's called research.

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

People more easily tolerate opposition than a contradiction

Old age transfigures or fossilizes.

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

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

We are not always even what we are most.

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

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