There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that receives it.

Edith Wharton

Two Spreading Light Candle

Favorite

Make wallpaper

Life is always either a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope.

Edith Wharton

Life Tightrope Feather Bed

Favorite

Make wallpaper

If only we'd stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time.

Edith Wharton

Stop Happy Pretty Good

Favorite

Make wallpaper

The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend.

Edith Wharton

Real Loneliness Living Kind

Favorite

Make wallpaper

Ah, good conversation - there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.

Edith Wharton

Good Conversation Ideas Worth

Favorite

Make wallpaper

There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of one's self, the very meaning of one's soul.

Edith Wharton

Friend Life Separate Beloved

Favorite

Make wallpaper

I don't know if I should care for a man who made life easy; I should want someone who made it interesting.

Edith Wharton

Care Life Easy Interesting

Favorite

Make wallpaper

In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs.

Edith Wharton

Reality Lived Hieroglyphic World

Favorite

Make wallpaper

Do you remember what you said to me once? That you could help me only by loving me? Well-you did love me for a moment; and it helped me. It has always helped me.

Edith Wharton

Remember Help Loving Me

Favorite

Make wallpaper

What Lily craved was the darkness made by enfolding arms, the silence which is not solitude, but compassion holding its breath.

Edith Wharton

Lily Craved Darkness Enfolding

Favorite

Make wallpaper

Silence may be as variously shaded as speech.

Edith Wharton

Silence Variously Shaded Speech

Favorite

Make wallpaper

I swear I only want to hear about you, to know what you've been doing. It's a hundred years since we've met-it may be another hundred before we meet again.

Edith Wharton

Swear Hear Hundred=years Meet

Favorite

Make wallpaper

The real marriage of true minds is for any two people to possess a sense of humor or irony pitched in exactly the same key, so that their joint glances on any subject cross like interarching searchlights.

Edith Wharton

Real-marriage True Minds Possess

Favorite

Make wallpaper

Nothing is more perplexing to a man than the mental process of a woman who reasons her emotions.

Edith Wharton

Nothing Perplexing Man Woman

Favorite

Make wallpaper

It was easy enough to despise the world, but decidedly difficult to find any other habitable region.

Edith Wharton

Easy Despise World Habitable-region

Favorite

Make wallpaper

His whole future seemed suddenly to be unrolled before him; and passing down its endless emptiness he saw the dwindling figure of a man to whom nothing was ever to happen.

Edith Wharton

Future Suddenly Unrolled

Favorite

Make wallpaper

And you'll sit beside me, and we'll look, not at visions, but at realities.

Edith Wharton

Sit Beside Me Visions

Favorite

Make wallpaper

They are all alike you know. They hold their tongues for years and you think you're safe, but when the opportunity comes they remember everything.

Edith Wharton

Alike Tongues Safe Remember

Favorite

Make wallpaper

Half the trouble in life is caused by pretending there isn't any.

Edith Wharton

Half Trouble Life Pretending

Favorite

Make wallpaper

To know when to be generous and when firmâ€”that is wisdom.

Edith Wharton

Generous Firm Wisdom

Favorite

Make wallpaper

He simply felt that if he could carry away the vision of the spot of earth she walked on, and the way the sky and sea enclosed it, the rest of the world might seem less empty.

Edith Wharton

Simply Carry Vision Earth

Favorite

Make wallpaper

...I have always lived on contrasts! To me the only death is monotony. Beware of monotony; it's the mother of all the deadly sins.

Edith Wharton

Lived Contrasts Death Beware

Favorite

Make wallpaper

I was just a screw or cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else.

Edith Wharton

Screw Life Machine Dropped

Favorite

Make wallpaper

I want to put my hand out and touch you. I want to do for you and care for you. I want to be there when you're sick and when you're lonesome.

Edith Wharton

Hand Touch Care Hand

Favorite

Make wallpaper

It is so easy for a woman to become what the man she loves believes her to be

Edith Wharton

Easy Woman Man Love

Favorite

Make wallpaper

I shan't be lonely now. I was lonely; I was afraid. But the emptiness and the darkness are gone; when I turn back into myself now I'm like a child going at night into a room where there's always a light.

Edith Wharton

Lonely Afraid Emptiness Darkness

Favorite

Make wallpaper

There's nothing grimmer than the tragedy that wears a comic mask.

Edith Wharton

Nothing Grimmer Tragedy Wears

Favorite

Make wallpaper

The taste of the usual was like cinders in his mouth, and there were moments when he felt as if he were being buried alive under his future.

Edith Wharton

Taste Cinders Mouth Moments

Favorite

Make wallpaper

Why do we call all our generous ideas illusions, and the mean ones truths?

Edith Wharton

Generous Ideas Illusions Truths

Favorite

Make wallpaper

He had known the love that is fed on caresses and feeds them; but this passion that was closer than his bones was not to be superficially satisfied.

Edith Wharton

Known Love Caresses Feeds

Favorite

Make wallpaper

They seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods.

Edith Wharton

Seemed Happiness Surprised Butterfly

Favorite

Make wallpaper

I can't love you unless I give you up.

Edith Wharton

Love Give You Up

Favorite

Make wallpaper

The only way to not think about money is to have a great deal of it.

Edith Wharton

Think Money Great Deal

Favorite

Make wallpaper

There was no use in trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free.

Edith Wharton

Trying Emancipate Wife Dimmest-notion

Favorite

Make wallpaper

True originality consists not in a new manner, but in a new vision.

Edith Wharton

True Originality New-manner Vision

Favorite

Make wallpaper

It is less mortifying to believe one's self unpopular than insignificant, and vanity prefers to assume that indifference is a latent form of unfriendliness

Edith Wharton

Mortifying Believe Unpopular

Favorite

Make wallpaper

Poetry and art are the breath of life to her.

Edith Wharton

Poetry Art Breath Life

Favorite

Make wallpaper

What a shame it is for a nation to be developing without a sense of beauty, and eating bananas for breakfast.

Edith Wharton

Shame Nation Developing Beauty

Favorite

Make wallpaper

He had her in his arms, her face like a wet flower at his lips, and all their vain terrors shriveling up like ghosts at sunrise.

Edith Wharton

Arms Face Wet-flower Lips

Favorite

Make wallpaper

We live in our own souls as in an unmapped region, a few acres of which we have cleared for our habitation; while of the nature of those nearest us we know but the boundaries that march with ours.

Edith Wharton

Live Souls Umapped-region

Favorite

Make wallpaper

...and wondering where he had read that clever liars give details, but that the cleverest do not.

Edith Wharton

Wondering Clever Liars Cleverest

Favorite

Make wallpaper

He had to deal all at once with the packed regrets and stifled dreams of an inarticulate lifetime.

Edith Wharton

Deal Once Parked Regret

Favorite

Make wallpaper

Her whole being dilated in an atmosphere of luxury. It was the background she required, the only climate she could breathe in.

Edith Wharton

Dilated Atmosphere Luxury Climate

Favorite

Make wallpaper

Her failure was a useful preliminary to success.

Edith Wharton

Failure Useful Success

Favorite

Make wallpaper

It was too late for happiness - but not too late to be helped by the thought of what I had missed. That is all I haved lived on - don't take it from me now

Edith Wharton

Happiness Missed Lived-on

Favorite

Make wallpaper

Life is the only real counselor; wisdom unfiltered through personal experience does not become a part of the moral tissue.

Edith Wharton

Life Real Counselor Wisdom

Favorite

Make wallpaper

Little as she was addicted to solitude, there had come to be moments when it seemed a welcome escape from the empty noises of her life.

Edith Wharton

Little Addicted Moments Welcome

Favorite

Make wallpaper

We shall hurt others less. Isn't it, after all, what you always wanted?

Edith Wharton

Hurt Wanted

Favorite

Make wallpaper

They stood together in the gloom of the spruces, an empty world glimmering about them wide and gray under the stars

Edith Wharton

Gloom Spruces Empty-world Glimmering

Favorite

Make wallpaper

..but it seemed to him that the tie between husband and wife, if breakable in prosperity, should be indissoluble in misfortune.

Edith Wharton

Husband Wife Breakable Prosperity

Favorite

Make wallpaper

Menu

Get Socialize

My Account

Login to your account

"50 Edith Wharton Quotes & Sayings

Edith Wharton

Life is always either a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope.

Edith Wharton

If only we'd stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time.

Edith Wharton

The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend.

Edith Wharton

Ah, good conversation - there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.

Edith Wharton

There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of one's self, the very meaning of one's soul.

Edith Wharton

I don't know if I should care for a man who made life easy; I should want someone who made it interesting.

Edith Wharton

In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs.

Edith Wharton

Do you remember what you said to me once? That you could help me only by loving me? Well-you did love me for a moment; and it helped me. It has always helped me.

Edith Wharton

What Lily craved was the darkness made by enfolding arms, the silence which is not solitude, but compassion holding its breath.

Edith Wharton

Silence may be as variously shaded as speech.

Edith Wharton

I swear I only want to hear about you, to know what you've been doing. It's a hundred years since we've met-it may be another hundred before we meet again.

Edith Wharton

The real marriage of true minds is for any two people to possess a sense of humor or irony pitched in exactly the same key, so that their joint glances on any subject cross like interarching searchlights.

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton

His whole future seemed suddenly to be unrolled before him; and passing down its endless emptiness he saw the dwindling figure of a man to whom nothing was ever to happen.

Edith Wharton

And you'll sit beside me, and we'll look, not at visions, but at realities.

Edith Wharton

They are all alike you know. They hold their tongues for years and you think you're safe, but when the opportunity comes they remember everything.

Edith Wharton

Half the trouble in life is caused by pretending there isn't any.

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton

He simply felt that if he could carry away the vision of the spot of earth she walked on, and the way the sky and sea enclosed it, the rest of the world might seem less empty.

Edith Wharton

...I have always lived on contrasts! To me the only death is monotony. Beware of monotony; it's the mother of all the deadly sins.

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton

I want to put my hand out and touch you. I want to do for you and care for you. I want to be there when you're sick and when you're lonesome.

Edith Wharton

It is so easy for a woman to become what the man she loves believes her to be

Edith Wharton

I shan't be lonely now. I was lonely; I was afraid. But the emptiness and the darkness are gone; when I turn back into myself now I'm like a child going at night into a room where there's always a light.

Edith Wharton

There's nothing grimmer than the tragedy that wears a comic mask.

Edith Wharton

The taste of the usual was like cinders in his mouth, and there were moments when he felt as if he were being buried alive under his future.

Edith Wharton

Why do we call all our generous ideas illusions, and the mean ones truths?

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton

I can't love you unless I give you up.

Edith Wharton

The only way to not think about money is to have a great deal of it.

Edith Wharton

There was no use in trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free.

Edith Wharton

True originality consists not in a new manner, but in a new vision.

Edith Wharton

It is less mortifying to believe one's self unpopular than insignificant, and vanity prefers to assume that indifference is a latent form of unfriendliness

Edith Wharton

Poetry and art are the breath of life to her.

Edith Wharton

What a shame it is for a nation to be developing without a sense of beauty, and eating bananas for breakfast.

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton

We live in our own souls as in an unmapped region, a few acres of which we have cleared for our habitation; while of the nature of those nearest us we know but the boundaries that march with ours.

Edith Wharton

...and wondering where he had read that clever liars give details, but that the cleverest do not.

Edith Wharton

He had to deal all at once with the packed regrets and stifled dreams of an inarticulate lifetime.