661 Quotes by Edith Wharton

It was a long time since any one had spoken to him as kindly as Mrs Hale. Most people were either indifferent to his troubles, or disposed to think it natural that a young fellow of his age should have carried without repining the burden of three crippled lives. But Mrs Hale had said ‘You’ve had an awful mean time, Ethan Frome,’ and he felt less alone with his misery.

Theodora usually found that her good intentions matured too late for practical results.

Damn words; they’re just the pots and pans of life, the pails and scrubbing-brushes. I wish I didn’t have to think in words...

You gave me my first glimpse of a real life, and at the same moment you asked me to go on with a sham one. It’s beyond human enduring-that’s all.

Ruth Varnum was always as nervous as a rat; and, come to think of.

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.

She clung to him desperately, and as he drew her to his knees on the couch she felt as if they were being sucked down together into some bottomless abyss.

I couldn’t have spoken like this yesterday, because when we’ve been apart, and I’m looking forward to seeing you, every thought is burnt up in a great flame. But then you come; and you’re so much more than I remembered, and what I want of you is so much more than an hour or two every now and then, with wastes of thirsty waiting between, that I can sit perfectly still beside you, like this, with that other vision in my mind, just quietly trusting it to come true.

She gave so many reasons that I’ve forgotten them all.