Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach Quotes

143 Sourced Quotes

It is unfortunate that a good talent and a good man seldom come together.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
Wags are beggars in the realm of the intellect; they live on alms tossed to them by fortune—on flashes of wit.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
There are very few honest friends—the demand is not particularly great.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
Virtue is also an art, and its adherents can be divided into the practicing artists and the mere fans.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
The intellect and the heart are on good terms with one another. One often represents the other so perfectly, that it is hard to determine which of the two was at work.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
Consider well before you immerse yourself in solitude whether your own company will be good for you.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
We are so vain that we care even for the opinion of those we don't care for.

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

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
One thought cannot awake without awakening others.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
But little evil would be done in the world if evil never could be done in the name of good.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
It is a characteristic of the great that they demand far less of other people than of themselves.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
To a new truth there is nothing more hurtful than an old error.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.

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

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
Manuscripts either moulder in your drawer, or mature there.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
No one ever accomplished the ordinary who did not attempt the extraordinary.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
Physicians are hated either on principle or for financial reasons.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
The simplest and most familiar truth seems new and wonderful the instant we ourselves experience it for the first time.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
It is not the mortal but the incurable illnesses which are the worst.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
When curiosity is felt about serious things we call it thirst for knowledge.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
To understand that the sky is everywhere blue, we need not go round the world.

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

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
I have often been told, on the occasion of the publication of some important scientific work, that 'whatever there is true in it is not new, and what is new is not true.' This means in plain language: 'we understand what we know, but that which we ought to know, we do not understand.'

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach