“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

Der Witzling ist der Bettler im Reich der Geister; er lebt von Almosen, die das Glück ihm zuwirft—von Einfällen.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 67.

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Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach81

Austrian writer 1830–1916

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“Wit is the appearance, the external flash of imagination. Thus its divinity, and the witty character of mysticism.”

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Variant translation:
Wit is the appearance, the external flash, of fantasy. Hence its divinity and the similarity to the wit of mysticism.
As translated in The Early Political Writings of the German Romantics (1996) edited by Frederick C. Beiser, p. 131