Edith Wharton Quotes

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

Edith Wharton

Inspirational, Life, Birthday

"Vesalius in Zante (1564)" st. 12 (1902)

220 Copy quote
One can remain alive ... if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity interested in big things and happy in small ways.

Edith Wharton

Life And Death, Curiosity, Intellectual

A Backward Glance "A First Word" (1934)

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

Edith Wharton

Half, Mirth, Life Is

Edith Wharton (2013). “House of Mirth and the Age of Innocence”, p.210, Simon and Schuster

37 Copy quote
Some things are best mended by a break.

Edith Wharton

Quitting, Break

Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.1543, Delphi Classics

11 Copy quote
The visible world is a daily miracle, for those who have eyes and ears.

Edith Wharton

Eye, Miracle, Ears

Edith Wharton (2016). “A Backward Glance”, p.285, Edith Wharton

9 Copy quote
I was a failure in Boston...because they thought I was too fashionable to be intelligent, and a failure in New York because they were afraid I was too intelligent to be fashionable.

Edith Wharton

New York, Intelligent, Boston

4 Copy quote
I believe I know the only cure, which is to make one’s center of life inside of one’s self, not selfishly or excludingly, but with a kind of unassailable serenity—to decorate one’s inner house so richly that one is content there, glad to welcome anyone who wants to come and stay, but happy all the same when one is inevitably alone.

Edith Wharton

Believe, Self, House

39 Copy quote
To know when to be generous and when firm—that is wisdom.

Edith Wharton

Wisdom, Firm, Knows

14 Copy quote
Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.

Edith Wharton

Carpe Diem, Enjoy Life, Action

Edith Wharton (2002). “Artemis to Actaeon and More: Selected Verse”, p.16, Wildside Press LLC

45 Copy quote
Life's just a perpetual piecing together of broken bits.

Edith Wharton

Broken, Together, Perpetual

Edith Wharton (2016). “The Reef: American Literature”, p.206, VM eBooks

11 Copy quote
Happiness is a work of art. Handle with care.

Edith Wharton

Happiness, Art, Care

Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.3642, Delphi Classics

14 Copy quote
The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!

Edith Wharton

Real, Loneliness, People

Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.2005, Delphi Classics

61 Copy quote
But I have sometimes thought that a woman's nature is like a great house full of rooms: there is the hall, through which everyone passes in going in and out; the drawing-room, where one receives formal visits; the sitting-room, where the members of the family come and go as they list; but beyond that, far beyond, are other rooms, the handles of whose doors perhaps are never turned; no one knows the way to them, no one knows whither they lead; and in the innermost room, the holy of holies, the soul sits alone and waits for a footstep that never comes.

Edith Wharton

Doors, Drawing, House

Edith Wharton (2016). “Early Short Stories: American Literature”, p.143, VM eBooks

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

Edith Wharton

Men, Emotion, Reason

Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.4566, Delphi Classics

51 Copy quote
An education is like a crumbling building that needs constant upkeep with repairs and additions.

Edith Wharton

Needs, Upkeep, Crumbling

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

Edith Wharton

Happiness, Happy, Women

"Ethan Frome".

62 Copy quote
I'm afraid I'm an incorrigible life-lover, life-wonderer, and adventurer.

Edith Wharton

Lovers, Incorrigible, Adventurer

3 Copy quote
There are two ways to spread happiness; either be the light who shines it or be the mirror who reflects it.

Edith Wharton

Happiness, Mirrors, Light

8 Copy quote
When a man says he doesn't understand a woman it's because he won't take the trouble.

Edith Wharton

Men, Trouble

Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.3676, Delphi Classics

19 Copy quote
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

Friendship, Best Friend, Self

Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.7592, Delphi Classics

30 Copy quote
Silence may be as variously shaded as speech.

Edith Wharton

Silence, Literature, May

Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.1366, Delphi Classics

21 Copy quote
Life is always either; a tight -rope or a feather-bed . — Give me the tightrope.

Edith Wharton

Life, Giving, Bed

43 Copy quote
There's no such thing as old age, there is only sorrow.

Edith Wharton

Sorrow, Age, Aging

1934 A Backward Glance, 'A First Word'.

14 Copy quote
One of the great things about travel is you find out how many good, kind people there are.

Edith Wharton

Inspirational, Travel, People

45 Copy quote
Everything may be labelled- but everybody is not.

Edith Wharton

May

Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.2005, Delphi Classics

6 Copy quote

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Born: January 24, 1862
Died: August 11, 1937
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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