Daily Inspiration Quote by Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

The line flatters the reader into a higher category: not just “people” but “good people,” and not just bickering but arguing “over principles.” Ebner-Eschenbach, writing from within the moral architecture of 19th-century Central Europe, knew how seductive that self-image is. The quote works because it reframes conflict as proof of virtue. If you’re sincerely principled, the clash itself becomes evidence that ethics are alive rather than ritual. It’s a generous move, but also a sly one: it offers a way to keep dignity intact when compromise feels like surrender.

The subtext is a theory of moral pluralism smuggled in as consolation. Two decent people can be driven by competing goods - justice versus mercy, loyalty versus truth, freedom versus care - and the collision doesn’t automatically produce a villain. That’s psychologically sharp and socially useful: it discourages the cheap thrill of demonization and makes room for the idea that integrity can point in more than one direction.

Still, the sentence is strategically incomplete. “Both right” can mean both morally serious, not both factually correct; it’s less a logical claim than a civility device. It also dodges how “principles” can be masks for class interest, nationalism, or pride - familiar dangers in Ebner-Eschenbach’s world of institutions, hierarchy, and emerging modern politics. The aphorism is at its best as a warning against moral certainty’s ugliest habit: treating disagreement as proof of depravity. Its risk is turning principled conflict into a feel-good stalemate, where being good becomes an excuse not to choose.