QuoteProject
Authors from whom others steal should not complain, but rejoice. Where there is no game there are no poachers.
Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects on the idea that if someone is being copied or referenced, it is a sign of their value and influence rather than a reason for complaint.

Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach suggests that when others steal from your ideas or works, it should be seen as a compliment rather than a grievance. The essence of the quote posits that if there is no competition or valuable content ('game'), no one will attempt to borrow from you ('poachers'). It encourages a perspective where influence is celebrated and viewed positively.

Themes

ImitationInfluenceCreativityValueComplaint

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about creativity, one might say, 'Remember what Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach said: 'Authors from whom others steal should not complain, but rejoice.'

More from Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

Those who understand only what can be explained understand very little.
Marie Von Ebner-EschenbachRead
We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don't care for.
Marie Von Ebner-EschenbachRead
Whoever prefers the material comforts of life over intellectual wealth is like the owner of a palace who moves into the servants’ quarters and leaves the sumptuous rooms empty.
Marie Von Ebner-EschenbachRead
In meeting again after a separation, acquaintances ask after our outward life, friends after our inner life.
Marie Von Ebner-EschenbachRead
Have patience with the quarrelsomeness of the stupid. It is not easy to comprehend that one does not comprehend.
Marie Von Ebner-EschenbachRead
There is only one proof of ability - action.
Marie Von Ebner-EschenbachRead

Similar quotes

Tolerance always has limits - it cannot tolerate what is itself actively intolerant.
Sidney HookRead
If I deny the authority of the State when it presents my tax bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard, this makes it impossible for a man to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably, in outward respects.
Henry David ThoreauRead
When you go into the space of nothingness, everything becomes known.
Gautama BuddhaRead
... when the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world social democracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments before it becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people ... will hate the New World Order and will die protesting against it. When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people.
H. G. WellsRead
History, as the study of the past, makes the coherence of what happened comprehensible by reducing events to a dramatic pattern and seeming them in a simple form.
Johan HuizingaRead
He that has learned to feel his sins, and to trust Christ as a Saviour, has learned the two hardest and greatest lessons in Christianity.
J. I. PackerRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.