Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is no cosmetic like happiness

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

To appear rich, we become poor.

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

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.

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.

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

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