Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach Quotations

In youth we learn; in age we understand.

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

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

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

What delights us in visible beauty is the invisible.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Nobody knows enough, but many know too much.

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

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.

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

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

Those who understand only what can be explained understand very little.

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

So soon as a fashion is universal, it is out of date.

We usually learn to wait only when we have no longer anything to wait for.

Kindness which is not inexhaustible does not deserve the name.

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

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

How wise must one be to be always kind.

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

Unattainable wishes are often "pious." This seems to indicate that only profane wishes are fulfilled.

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

There are more truths in a good book than its author meant to put in it.

Beware of the virtue which a man boasts is his.

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

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

An opinion may be controverted; a prejudice, never.

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

Conquer, but don't triumph.

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

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

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

People more easily tolerate opposition than a contradiction

Those who know nothing must believe everything.

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

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

Whoever prefers the material comforts of life over intellectual wealth is like the owner of a palace who moves into the servants’ quarters and leaves the sumptuous rooms empty.

Who doesn't know anything, has to believe everything.

Imaginary evils are incurable.

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

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

They understand but a little who understand only what can be explained.

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

Conquer but never triumph.

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

Privilege is the greatest enemy of right.

Where would the power of women be, were it not for the vanity of men?

The greatest enemy of justice is privilege.

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

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

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

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

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

Pity is love in undress.

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

We should always forgive. We should forgive the repentant for their sake, the unrepentant for our sake.

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

Old age transfigures or fossilizes.

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

Happy slaves are the bitterest enemies of freedom

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

Genius points the way, talent takes it.

There is only one proof of ability - action.

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

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

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

Be the first to say something obvious and achieve immortality.

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

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

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

When art find no temple open, it takes refuge in the workshop.

Accident is veiled necessity.

Calmness is the graceful form of Confidence.

Those whom we support hold us up in life.

One thought cannot awake without awakening others.

Passion is always suffering, even when gratified.

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

When the time comes in which one could, the time has passed in which one can.

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

Runners are poor walkers.

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

Morals refine manners, as manners refine morals.

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

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

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

Most imitators attempt the inimitable.

Without imagination, there is no goodness, no wisdom.

A man with lofty ideas is an uncomfortable neighbor.

We are not always even what we are most.

New happiness too must be learned to bear.

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

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

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

We ask the poet: 'What subject have you chosen?' instead of: 'What subject has chosen you?