The world would be much better off if the pains taken to analyze the subtlest moral laws were given to the practice of the simplest.

[Es stände besser um die Welt, wenn die Mühe, die man sich gibt, die subtilsten Moralgesetze auszuklüglen, zur Ausübung der einfachsten angewendet würde.]

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) Austrian writer

Aphorisms [Aphorismen], No. 104 (1880) [tr. Wister (1883)]
    (Source)

(Source (German)). Alternate translation:

The world would be in better shape if people would take the same pains in the practice of the simplest moral laws as they exert in intellectualizing over the most subtle moral questions.
[tr. Scrase/Mieder (1994)]