Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

“Misanthropy is a slow suicide.”

“Have compassion for everyone, but admiration for only a few.”

“Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”

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

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

“Nothing is so often and so irrevocably missed as the opportunity which crops up daily.”

“The desire to seem clever often prevents one from becoming so.”

“One can be the master of what one does, but never of what one feels.”

“Be the master of your will and the servant of your conscience.”

“A witty saying proves nothing.”

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

“Fear is in many cases a form of daring.”

“In youth we learn; in age we understand.”

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”

“Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.”

“There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other.”

“An aphorism is the last link in a long chain of thought.”