Edith Wharton Quotes

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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)

70 Copy quote
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)

236 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

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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

44 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

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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

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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

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

Edith Wharton

Wisdom, Firm, Knows

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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

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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

64 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

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

Edith Wharton

Happiness, Happy, Women

"Ethan Frome".

63 Copy quote
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

Flower, Sunrise, Arms

Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.1992, Delphi Classics

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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

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

Edith Wharton

Needs, Upkeep, Crumbling

20 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

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In every heart there should be one grief that is like a well in the desert.

Edith Wharton

Grief, Heart, Desert

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In our hurried world too little value is attached to the part of the connoisseur and dilettante.

Edith Wharton

Happiness, World, Littles

Edith Wharton (2016). “A Backward Glance”, p.113, Edith Wharton

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Life is the saddest thing there is, next to death.

Edith Wharton

Life, Next, Saddest

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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

Edith Wharton

Inspirational, Travel, People

48 Copy quote
Life is made up of compromises.

Edith Wharton

Compromise, Life Is, Made

Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.4565, Delphi Classics

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

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