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Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
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“An aphorism is the last link in a long chain of thought. ”
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“Even a stopped clock is right twice every day. After some years, it can boast of a long series of successes.”
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“It's bad enough when married people bore one another, but it's much worse when only one of them bores the other.”
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“I regret nothing, says arrogance; I will regret nothing, says inexperience.”
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“When curiosity turns to serious matters, it's called research.”
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“How happy are the pessimists! What joy is theirs when they have proved that there is no joy.”
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“Exceptions are not always the proof of the old rule; they can also be the harbinger of a new one.”
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“The mediocre always feel as if they're fighting for their lives when confronted by the excellent.”
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“Distrust your judgment the moment you can discern the shadow of a personal motive in it.”
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“The little bit of truth contained in many a lie is what makes them so terrible.”
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“One can acquire some virtues by feigning them for a long time.”
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“Those who understand only what can be explained understand very little.”
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“There are very few honest friends — the demand is not particularly great.”
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“Be the first to say what is self-evident, and you are immortal.”
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“What delights us in visible beauty is the invisible.”
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“Conquer, but never triumph.”
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“Accident is veiled necessity.”
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“Have patience with the quarrelsomeness of the stupid. It is not easy to comprehend that one does not comprehend.”
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“Our greatest indulgence towards a man springs from our despair of him.”
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“The simplest and most familiar truth seems new and wonderful the instant we ourselves experience it for the first time.”
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“Never strive, O artist, to create what you are not irresistibly impelled to create!”
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“Nothing is so often irrevocably neglected as an opportunity we encounter every day.”
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“We usually learn to wait only when we have no longer anything to wait for.”
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“If there be a faith that can remove mountains, it is faith in our own power.”
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“Pity is love in undress.”
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“Those who believe in the freedom of the will have never loved, and never hated.”
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“Most imitators attempt the inimitable.”
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“To have and not to give is often worse than to steal.”
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“The poor never estimate as a virtue the generosity of the rich.”
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“Those who cannot remember clearly their own childhood are poor educators.”
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“The incurable ills are the imaginary ills.”
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“When art finds no temple open, it takes refuge in the workshop.”
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“Hatred is a prolific vice; envy, a barren vice.”
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“What you wish to do you are apt to think you ought to do.”
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“Only the thinking man lives his life, the thoughtless man's life passes him by.”
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“Age transfigures, or petrifies.”
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“There are more truths in a good book than its author meant to put in it.”
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“Do not fear the ones who argue, but rather those who are evasive.”
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“When two good men contend about principles, both are always right.”
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“There are times when to be reasonable is to be cowardly.”
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“To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much, impossible.”
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“There is only one proof of ability — action.”
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“In youth we learn, in age we understand.”
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“He who has trusted where he ought not will surely mistrust where he ought not.”
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“But little evil would be done in the world if evil never could be done in the name of good.”
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“All that is due to us will be paid, although not perhaps by those to whom we have lent. ”
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“Those whom we support hold us up in life.”
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“We are so vain that we care even for the opinion of those we don't care for.”
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“The believer who has never doubted will hardly convert a doubter.”
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“'It is impossible to help all,' says the miser, and — helps none.”
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“Those who know nothing must believe everything.”
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“We are not always even what we are most.”
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“Many think they have good hearts who have only weak nerves.”
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“Morals refine manners, as manners refine morals.”
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“New happiness too must be learned to bear.”
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“Authors from whom others steal should not complain, but rejoice. Where there is no game there are no poachers.”
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“To be young is delightful; to be old is comfortable.”
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“We are valued either too highly or not highly enough. We are never taken at our real worth.”
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“Many a truth is the result of an error.”
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“Whoso appears before the public should expect no consideration and demand none.”
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“A man with lofty ideas is an uncomfortable neighbor.”
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“Privilege is the greatest enemy of justice.”
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“Many think that when they have confessed a fault there is no need of correcting it.”
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“In meeting again after a separation, acquaintances ask after our outward life, friends after our inner life.”
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“Hobbies protect us from passions. One hobby becomes a passion.”
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“We don't believe in rheumatism or true love until we have been attacked by them.”
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“Consider once before you give, twice before you receive, and a thousand times before you ask.”
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“So soon as a fashion is universal, it is out of date. ”
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“Do your duty until it becomes your joy.”
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“None are so eager to gain new experience as those who don't know how to make use of the old ones.”
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“In this world, all power rests upon force.”
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“You stay young as long as you can learn, acquire new habits and suffer contradiction. ”
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“Nobody knows enough, but many too much.”
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“If you have one good idea, people will lend you twenty.”
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“As far as your self-control goes, as far goes your freedom.”
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“Runners are poor walkers.”
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“Without imagination, there is no goodness, no wisdom.”
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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.”
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“With our parents we bury our past, with our children our future.”
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“We ask the poet: 'What subject have you chosen?' instead of: 'What subject has chosen you?'”
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“A book cannot easily be too bad for the general public, but may easily be too good. ”
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“We can be wise from goodness and good from wisdom.”
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“The manuscript in the drawer either rots or ripens.”
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“Origins are of the greatest importance. We are almost reconciled to having a cold when we remember where we caught it.”
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“Many priceless things can be bought.”
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Austrian writer
(1830 - 1916)
Baroness Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach was born Countess Dubsky.