Those who understand only what can be explained understand very little.
Marie Von Ebner-EschenbachRead
To be content with little is hard; to be content with much, impossible.
Interpretation
Finding contentment with little is challenging, and achieving it with much is even more so.
This quote highlights the difficulty of achieving true contentment, suggesting that it is naturally more challenging to be satisfied with what one has, especially when possessing much. It reflects on human nature and our tendency to desire more, implying that true happiness might not come from material wealth but rather from appreciating simplicity.
In practice
In a motivational speech about finding joy in life's simple pleasures.
Those who understand only what can be explained understand very little.
We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don't care for.
Whoever prefers the material comforts of life over intellectual wealth is like the owner of a palace who moves into the servantsβ quarters and leaves the sumptuous rooms empty.
Authors from whom others steal should not complain, but rejoice. Where there is no game there are no poachers.
In meeting again after a separation, acquaintances ask after our outward life, friends after our inner life.
Have patience with the quarrelsomeness of the stupid. It is not easy to comprehend that one does not comprehend.
When you learn to say thank you, you see the world anew.
Before you ever receive the wonderful treasures of a happy life, you must first give. Give of yourself. Be of service to others. Only what you give can be multiplied back into your own life.
One thing is certain: you can never become anything other than yourself, and unless you become yourself you cannot be happy. Happiness happens only when a rosebush grows roseflowers; when it flowers, when it has its own individuality. You may be a rosebush and trying to flower as lotus flower - that is creating insanity. Erase the mind. And the way to erase it is not by fight: the way to erase it is just to become aware.
I am truly at my happiest not when I am writing an aria for an actor or making a grand political or social point. I am at my happiest when I've figured out a fun way for somebody to slip on a banana peel.
Almost all the joyful things of life are outside the measure of IQ tests.
It's horrible when people are only interested in buying labels, because it doesn't bring them the happiness they think it will.
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