Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington Quotes

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Yes, the meeting of dear friends atones for the regret of separation; and like it so much enhances affection, that after absence one wonders how one has been able to stay away from them so long.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Talent, like beauty, to be pardoned, must be obscure and unostentatious.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Happiness consists not in having much, but in being content with little.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Those can most easily dispense with society who are the most calculated to adorn it; they only are dependent on it who possess no mental resources, for though they bring nothing to the general mart, like beggars, they are too poor to stay at home.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
We are more prone to murmur at the punishment of our faults than to lament them.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
It is an indisputable fact that only vain people wage war against the vanity of others.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Egoism is in general the malady of the aged;... we become occupied with our own existence in proportion as it ceases to be interesting to others.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
When we bring back with us the objects most dear, and find those we left unchanged, we are tempted to doubt the lapse of time; but one link in the chain of affection broken, and every thing seems altered.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Here Fashion is a despot, and no one dreams of evading its dictates.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
A woman's head is always influenced by her heart, but a man's heart is always influenced by his head.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
I see little alteration at Lyons since I formerly passed through it. Its manufactories are, nevertheless, flourishing, though less improvement than could be expected is visible in the external aspect of the place.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Our weaknesses are the indigenous produce of our characters; but our strength is the forced fruit.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
There is no knowledge for which so great a price is paid as a knowledge of the world; and no one ever became an adept in it except at the expense of a hardened or a wounded heart.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
A man should never boast of his courage, nor a woman of her virtue, lest their doing so should be the cause of calling their possession of them into question.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Many minds that have withstood the most severe trials have been broken down by a succession of ignoble cares.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Sure there's different roads from this to Dungarvan* - some thinks one road pleasanter, and some think another; wouldn't it be mighty foolish to quarrel for this? - and sure isn't it twice worse to thry to interfere with people for choosing the road they like best to heaven?

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
The numerous family of father, mother, sister, brother, and his six children, that I have to provide for, compels me to write, when my health would demand a total repose from literary exertion.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Pleasure is like a cordial—a little of it is not injurious, but too much destroys.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
I never will allow myself to form an ideal of any person I desire to see, for disappointment never fails to ensue.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
We never respect those who amuse us, however we may smile at their comic powers.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
In France, a woman may forget that she is neither young nor handsome; for the absence of these claims to attention does not expose her to be neglected by the male sex.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
When the sun shines on you, you see your friends. It requires sunshine to be seen by them to your advantage. While it lasts we are visible to them; when it is gone, and our horizon is overcast, they are invisible to us.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
We have a reading, a talking, and a writing public. When shall we have a thinking?

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Society punishes not the vices of its members, but their detection.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Religion converts despair, which destroys, into resignation, which submits.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Some people are capable of making great sacrifices, but few are capable of concealing how much the effort has cost them; and it is this concealment that constitutes their value.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
It is a sad thing to look at happiness only through another's eyes.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
This is an autobiographical-loving age...

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
To amend mankind, moralists should show them man, not as he is, but as he ought to be.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington