Top quotes by Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington

Love in France is a comedy; in England a tragedy; in Italy an opera seria; and in Germany a melodrama. Votes: 14

Borrowed thoughts, like borrowed money, only show the poverty of the borrower. Votes: 6

... I never will allow myself to form an ideal of any person I desire to see, for disappointment never fails to ensue. Votes: 6

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. Votes: 6

Calumny is the offspring of Envy. Votes: 6

Despotism subjects a nation to one tyrant; democracy, to many. Votes: 6

Happiness is a rare plant that seldom takes root on earth-few ever enjoyed it, except for a brief period; the search after it is rarely rewarded by the discovery, but there is an admirable substitute for it... a contented spirit. Votes: 6

Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart. Votes: 5

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. Votes: 5

Memory seldom fails when its office is to show us the tombs of our buried hopes. Votes: 3

A mother's love! O holy, boundless thing! Fountain whose waters never cease to spring! Votes: 3

A woman's head is always influenced by her heart, but a man's heart is always influenced by his head. Votes: 3

alas! there is no casting anchor in the stream of time! Votes: 3

Bores: People who talk of themselves, when you are thinking only of yourself. Votes: 3

Flattery, if judiciously administered, is always acceptable. Votes: 3

Haste is always ungraceful. Votes: 3

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. Votes: 2

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. Votes: 2

Conversation is the legs on which thought walks; and writing, the wings by which it flies. Votes: 1

[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. Votes: 0

A beautiful woman without fixed principles may be likened to those fair but rootless flowers which float in streams, driven by every breeze. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

A poor man defended himself when charged with stealing food to appease the cravings of hunger, saying, the cries of the stomach silenced those of the conscience. Votes: 0

A profound knowledge of life is the least enviable of all species of knowledge, because it can only be acquired by trials that make us regret the loss of our ignorance. Votes: 0

Arles is certainly one of the most interesting towns I have ever seen, whether viewed as a place remarkable for the objects of antiquity it contains, or for the primitive manners of its inhabitants and its picturesque appearance. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Genius is the gold in the mine, talent is the miner who works and brings it out. Votes: 0

Grief is, of all the passions, the one that is the most ingenious and indefatigable in finding food for its own subsistence. Votes: 0

Happiness consists not in having much, but in being content with little. Votes: 0

He who fears not, is to be feared. Votes: 0

He who would remain honest ought to keep away want. Votes: 0

Heaven sends us misfortunes as a moral tonic. Votes: 0

Here Fashion is a despot, and no one dreams of evading its dictates. Votes: 0

Imagination, which is the Eldorado of the poet and of the novel-writer, often proves the most pernicious gift to the individuals who compose the talkers instead of the writers in society. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

It is a sad thing to look at happiness only through another's eyes. Votes: 0

Life would be as insupportable without the prospect of death, as it would be without sleep. Votes: 0

Listeners beware, for ye are doomed never to hear good of yourselves. Votes: 0

Love and enthusiasm are always ridiculous, when not reciprocated by their objects. Votes: 0

Love matches are made by people who are content, for a month of honey, to condemn themselves to a life of vinegar. Votes: 0

Many minds that have withstood the most severe trials have been broken down by a succession of ignoble cares. Votes: 0

Mediocrity is beneath a brave soul. Votes: 0

Men are capable of making great sacrifices, who are not willing to make the lesser ones, on which so much of the happiness of life depends. The great sacrifices are seldom called for, but the minor ones are in daily requisition; and the making them with cheerfulness and grace enhances their value ... Votes: 0

Men who would persecute others for religious opinions, prove the errors of their own. Votes: 0

Modern historians are all would-be philosophers; who, instead of relating facts as they occurred, give us their version, or rather perversions of them, always colored by their political prejudices, or distorted to establish some theory . . . Votes: 0

One of the most marked characteristics of our day is a reckless neglect of principles, and a rigid adherence to their semblance. Votes: 0

Only vain people wage war against the vanity of others. Votes: 0

People are always willing to follow advice when it accords with their own wishes. Votes: 0

People seem to lose all respect for the past; events succeed each other with such velocity that the most remarkable one of a few years gone by, is no more remembered than if centuries had closed over it. Votes: 0

Pleasure is like a cordial - a little of it is not injurious, but too much destroys. Votes: 0

Praise is the only gift for which people are really grateful. Votes: 0

Reason dissipates the illusions of life, but does not console us for their departure. Votes: 0

Religion converts despair, which destroys, into resignation, which submits. Votes: 0

Satire, like conscience, reminds us of what we often wish to forget. Votes: 0

Society punishes not the vices of its members, but their detection ... Votes: 0

Society seldom forgives those who have discovered the emptiness of its pleasures, and who can live independent of it and them. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Spring is the season of hope, and autumn is that of memory. Votes: 0

Superstition is but the fear of belief. Votes: 0

Superstition is only the fear of belief, while religion is the confidence. Votes: 0

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? Votes: 0

Talent, like beauty, to be pardoned, must be obscure and unostentatious. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Tears may be dried up, but the heart - never. Votes: 0

The chief prerequisite for a escort is to have a flexible conscience and an inflexible politeness. Votes: 0

The difference between weakness and wickedness is much less than people suppose; and the consequences are nearly always the same. Votes: 0

The future: A consolation for those who have no other. Votes: 0

The infirmities of genius are often mistaken for its privileges. Votes: 0

The most certain mode of making people content with us is to make them content with themselves. Votes: 0

The vices of the rich and great are mistaken for error; and those of the poor and lowly, for crimes. Votes: 0

There are no persons capable of stooping so low as those who desire to rise in the world. Votes: 0

There are some chagrins of the heart which a friend ought to try to console without betraying a knowledge of their existence, as there are physical maladies which a physician ought to seek to heal without letting the sufferer know that he has discovered their extent. Votes: 0

There is no cosmetic like happiness Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

There is no magician like love. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Those who are formed to win general admiration are seldom calculated to bestow individual happiness. Votes: 0

Thoughts come maimed and plucked of plumage from the lips, which, from the pea, in the silence of your own leisure and study, would be born with far more beauty. Votes: 0

To amend mankind, moralists should show them man, not as he is, but as he ought to be. Votes: 0

To appear rich, we become poor. Votes: 0

We are more prone to murmur at the punishment of our faults than to lament them. Votes: 0

We have a reading, a talking, and a writing public. When shall we have a thinking? Votes: 0

We never respect those who amuse us, however we may smile at their comic powers Votes: 0

When the sun shines on you, you see your friends. It requires sunshine to be seen by them to advantage! Votes: 0

Wit is the lightning of the mind, reason the sunshine, and reflection the moonlight ... Votes: 0

Wit lives in the present, but genius survives the future. Votes: 0

Women excel more in literary judgment than in literary production,--they are better critics than authors. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Our weaknesses are the indigenous produce of our characters; but our strength is the forced fruit. Votes: 0

Friends are the thermometer by which we may judge the temperature of our fortunes. Votes: 0

When we find that we are not liked, we assert that we are not understood; when probably the dislike we have excited proceeds from our being too fully comprehended. Votes: 0

Mountains appear more lofty the nearer they are approached, but great men resemble them not in this particular. Votes: 0