Edith Wharton Quotes - Page 5

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Genius is of small use to a woman who does not know how to do her hair.

Edith Wharton

Women, Hair, Doe

Edith Wharton (2007). “Ethan Frome and Other Short Fiction”, p.14, Bantam Classics

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Yes, one gets over things. But there are certain memories one can't bit on.

Edith Wharton

Memories, Life And Love, Certain

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An unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences.

Edith Wharton

Music, Artist, Italian

The Age of Innocence ch. 1 (1920)

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After all, one knows one's weak points so well, that it's rather bewildering to have the critics overlook them and invent others.

Edith Wharton

Criticism, Glitter, Weak Points

Edith Wharton, Richard Warrington Baldwin Lewis, Nancy Lewis (1988). “The letters of Edith Wharton”, Macmillan Reference USA

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Life is either always a tight-rope or a featherbed. Give me a tight-rope.

Edith Wharton

Inspirational, Life, Giving

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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

Believe, Vanity, Self

Edith Wharton (2013). “House of Mirth and the Age of Innocence”, p.115, Simon and Schuster

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There was once a little girl who was so very intelligent that her parents feared that she would die. But an aged aunt, who had crossed the Atlantic in a sailing-vessel, said, 'My dears, let her marry the first man she falls in love with, and she will make such a fool of herself that it will probably save her life.

Edith Wharton

Girl, Falling In Love, Aunt

Edith Wharton (2001). “Collected Stories, 1891-1910”

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Their long years together had shown him that it did not so much matter if marriage was a dull duty, as long as it kept the dignity of duty: lapsing from that, it became a mere battle of ugly appetites.

Edith Wharton

Years, Long, Battle

Edith Wharton (2013). “House of Mirth and the Age of Innocence”, p.538, Simon and Schuster

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We can't behave like people in novels, though, can we?

Edith Wharton

Life, People, Novel

Edith Wharton (2015). “The Age of Innocence”, p.67, Xist Publishing

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Women ought to be free - as free as we are,' he declared, making a discovery of which he was too irritated to measure the terrific consequences.

Edith Wharton

Discovery, Innocence, Irritated

Edith Wharton (2016). “The Age of Innocence: American Literature”, p.28, VM eBooks

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Her mind was an hotel where facts came and went like transient lodgers, without leaving their address behind, and frequently without paying for their board.

Edith Wharton

Leaving, Mind, Boards

Edith Wharton (2012). “Short Stories”, p.90, Courier Corporation

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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

Usual, Alive, Mouths

Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.2048, Delphi Classics

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It is almost as stupid to let your clothes betray that you know you are ugly as to have them proclaim that you think you are beautiful.

Edith Wharton

Beautiful, Fashion, Stupid

Edith Wharton (2016). “The House of Mirth: Edith Wharton”, p.81, VM eBooks

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I despair of the Republic! Such dreariness, such whining sallow women, such utter absence of the amenities, such crass food, crass manners, crass landscape!! What a horror it is for a whole nation to be developing without the sense of beauty, and eating bananas for breakfast.

Edith Wharton

Beauty, America, Despair

Edith Wharton, Richard Warrington Baldwin Lewis, Nancy Lewis (1988). “The letters of Edith Wharton”, Macmillan Reference USA

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True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision. That new, that personal, vision is attained only by looking long enough at the object represented to make it the writer's own; and the mind which would bring this secret gem to fruition must be able to nourish it with an accumulated wealth of knowledge and experience.

Edith Wharton

Wealth Of Knowledge, Long, Mind

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Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before.

Edith Wharton

Art, Fear, Immature

The Writing of Fiction (1925) ch. 1

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Don't they always go from bad to worse? There's no turning back--your old self rejects you, and shuts you out. ~Lilly Bart

Edith Wharton

Self, Rejects You, No Turning Back

Edith Wharton (2010). “The House of Mirth”, p.163, Giunti Editore

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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

Sea, Sky, Vision

Edith Wharton (2013). “House of Mirth and the Age of Innocence”, p.449, Simon and Schuster

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Inkstands and tea-cups are never as full as when one upsets them.

Edith Wharton

Upset, Tea, Inanimate Objects

Edith Wharton (2016). “A Backward Glance”, p.172, Edith Wharton

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She was very near hating him now; yet the sound of his voice, the way the light fell on his thin, dark hair, the way he sat and moved and wore his clothes—she was conscious that even these trivial things were inwoven with her deepest life.

Edith Wharton

Hate, Dark, Light

Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.764, Delphi Classics

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The turnings of life seldon show a sign-post; or rather, though the sign is always there, it is usually placed some distance back, like the notices that give warning of a bad hill or a level railway-crossing.

Edith Wharton

Distance, Giving, Warning

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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

Helping, Remember, Moments

Edith Wharton (2016). “The House of Mirth: Edith Wharton”, p.275, VM eBooks

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She was so evidently the victim of the civilization which had produced her, that the links of her bracelet seemed like manacles chaining her to her fate.

Edith Wharton

Fate, Civilization, Links

Edith Wharton (2015). “The House of Mirth”, p.8, Xist Publishing

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I think sometimes that it is almost a pity to enjoy Italy as much as I do, because the acuteness of my sensations makes them rather exhausting; but when I see the stupid Italians I have met here, completely insensitive to their surroundings, and ignorant of the treasures of art and history among which they have grown up, I begin to think it is better to be an American, and bring to it all a mind and eye unblunted by custom.

Edith Wharton

Art, Stupid, Eye

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When people ask for time, it's always for time to say no. Yes has one more letter in it, but it doesn't take half as long to say.

Edith Wharton

Long, People, Half

Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.3200, Delphi Classics

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

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