Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington Quotes - Page 2

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.

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

[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.

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

Wit lives in the present, but genius survives the future.

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

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

There is no magician like love.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Superstition is but the fear of belief.

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.