Skip to content

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 Aphorisms (1880)

Der Witzling ist der Bettler im Reich der Geister; er lebt von Almosen, die das Glück ihm zuwirft—von Einfällen.

Original text (German)

Another quote →

Notes from Wikiquote

p. 67.

Topics

Luck

More quotes by Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

None are so inconsiderate as those who demand nothing of life other than their own personal comfort.

Aphorisms (1880)

Nothing makes us more cowardly and unconscionable than the desire to be loved by everyone.

Aphorisms (1880)

Consider well before you immerse yourself in solitude whether your own company will be good for you.

Aphorisms (1880)

Enthusiasm does not always speak for those who arouse it, but always for those who experience it.

Aphorisms (1880)

The world belongs to those who possess it, and is scorned by those to whom it should belong.

Aphorisms (1880)

All Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach quotes →

You may also like

In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.

Louis Pasteur

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.

William Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1601)

O Fortune, cruellest of heavenly powers,
Why make such game of this poor life of ours?

Horace Satires (-35)

Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave.

Edward Gibbon The History of the Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (1776)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.