661 Quotes by Edith Wharton

But is has happened, you know. Bear that in mind. Nothing you can do will change it. Time and again, I've found that a good thing to remember.

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.

The situation between them was one which could have been cleared up only by a sudden explosion of feeling, and their whole training and habit of mind were against the chances of such an explosion.

...если человек отказывает себе во всем, это отравляет его здоровье и характер. (Элли Вандерлин - Сюзи Бранч)

I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person.

How beautiful it was---and how she loved beauty! She had always felt that her sensibility in this direction made up for certain obtuseness of feeling of which she was less proud.

But he could never be long without trying to find a reason for what she was doing . . .

Ah, he would take her beyond---beyond the ugliness, the pettiness, the attrition and corrosion of her soul.

There were in her at the moment two beings, one drawing deep breaths of freedom and exhilaration, the other gasping for air in a little black prison-house of fears. But gradually the captive's gasps grew fainter, or the other paid less heed to them: the horizon expanded, the air grew stronger, and the free spirit quivered for flight.