Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
You were wise not to waste years in a lawsuit ... he who commences a suit resembles him who plants a palm-tree which he will not live to see flourish.Collection: Wise
Heaven sends us misfortunes as a moral tonic.Collection: Heaven
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.Collection: Knowledge
Mediocrity is beneath a brave soul.Collection: Brave
He who would remain honest ought to keep away want.Collection: Want
The vices of the rich and great are mistaken for error; and those of the poor and lowly, for crimes.Collection: Errors
A woman's head is always influenced by her heart, but a man's heart is always influenced by his head.Collection: Heart
Friends are the thermometer by which we may judge the temperature of our fortunes.Collection: Friendship
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.Collection: Home
Love in France is a comedy; in England a tragedy; in Italy an opera seria; and in Germany a melodrama.Collection: Love
Spring is the season of hope, and autumn is that of memory.Collection: Memories
One of the most marked characteristics of our day is a reckless neglect of principles, and a rigid adherence to their semblance.Collection: Adherence
Wit lives in the present, but genius survives the future.Collection: Genius
[His mind] was like a volcano, full of fire and wealth, sometimes calm, often dazzling and playful, but ever threatening. It ran swift as the lightning from one subject to another, and occasionally burst forth in passionate throes of intellect, nearly allied to madness.Collection: Fire
The most certain mode of making people content with us is to make them content with themselves.Collection: People
There is no magician like love.Collection: Love
Grief is, of all the passions, the one that is the most ingenious and indefatigable in finding food for its own subsistence.Collection: Grief
... I never will allow myself to form an ideal of any person I desire to see, for disappointment never fails to ensue.Collection: Disappointment
People are always willing to follow advice when it accords with their own wishes.Collection: People
Women excel more in literary judgment than in literary production,--they are better critics than authors.Collection: Literature
Mountains appear more lofty the nearer they are approached, but great men resemble them not in this particular.Collection: Men
Tears fell from my eyes - yes, weak and foolish as it now appears to me, I wept for my departed youth; and for that beauty of which the faithful mirror too plainly assured me, no remnant existed.Collection: Eye
Love matches are made by people who are content, for a month of honey, to condemn themselves to a life of vinegar.Collection: Love
Religion converts despair, which destroys, into resignation, which submits.Collection: Religion
It is a sad thing to look at happiness only through another's eyes.Collection: Happiness
Flowers are the bright remembrances of youth; they waft us back, with their bland odorous breath, the joyous hours that only young life knows, ere we have learnt that this fair earth hides graves.Collection: Flower
A German writer observes: "The noblest characters only show themselves in their real light. All others act comedy with their fellow-men even unto the grave.Collection: Real
Those who are formed to win general admiration are seldom calculated to bestow individual happiness.Collection: Winning
Haste is always ungraceful.Collection: Haste