A sense of the absurd married to an inflexible observation of the rules of etiquette

She [Countess Bianca Maria Colomba Korvin] came to personify for me more and more all the qualities of the Habsburg world: perseverance, courage, detachment, and, perhaps above all, a sense of the absurd married to an inflexible observation of the rules of etiquette. However much we laughed together and became friends, the formal Sie was never once surrendered to the informal Du.

R. Bassett, Last days in old Europe (2019), 14-15

What made Habsburg Spain Europe's most formidable war machine was money, or more accurately, credit

What made Habsburg Spain Europe's most formidable war machine was money, or more accurately, credit: the ability to borrow huge sums to field armies and assemble navies. What gave Spain credit was in large part an early flood of silver from Potosi, the bonanza that came close on the heels of Atahualpa's treasure.

K. Lane, Potosi (2019), 49

Possesses still, at least for romantics like me, a fragrant sense of what might-have-been

The most appealing aspect of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, at least in retrospect, was its European cosmopolitanism. It had few black , brown or yellow subjects, but it contained within itself half the peoples of Europe. It was multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-faith, bound together only, whether willingly or unwillingly, by the imperial discipline. it was closer to the European community of the twenty-first century than to the British Empire of the the nineteenth and possesses still, at least for romantics like me, a fragrant sense of what might-have-been.

J. Morris, Trieste and the meaning of nowhere (2001), 32

One does not advertise ideas as though they were laxatives or toothpaste

'One does not advertise ideas as though they were laxatives or toothpaste,' said the Emperor Karl, last of the Hapsburg Emperors of Austria-Hungary - a mistaken opinion which was one of the contributory causes of his own downfall and the disintegration of an empire which had endured (in various forms) for a millennium.

L. Hughes - Hallet, The Pike (2013), 382