But marriage is one long sacrifice… Chapter 21, Medora Manson speaking to Newland Archer — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
There was no use in trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free. — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
I'd almost say it's the worries that make married folks sacred to each other. — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“Some one said the other day that there was a divorce and a case of appendicitis in every family one knows.” — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
..but it seemed to him that the tie between husband and wife, if breakable in prosperity, should be indissoluble in misfortune. — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“After all, marriage is marriage, and money's money—both useful things in their way ...” — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
Their long years together had shown him that it did not so much matter if marriage was a dull duty, as long… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
Ah, the poverty, the miserable poverty, of any love that lies outside of marriage, of any love that is not a living… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“It had evidently not occurred to her as yet that those who consent to share the bread of adversity may want the… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
Once more it was borne in on him that marriage was not the safe anchorage he had been taught to think, but… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“he saw his marriage becoming what most of the other marriages about him were: a dull association of material and social interests… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
And I wonder, among all the tangles of this mortal coil, which one contains tighter knots to undo, & consequently suggests more… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
Once more it was borne in on him that marriage was not the safe anchorage he had been taught to think, but… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“Lady Brightlingsea considered it her duty to fish out of this out darkness, and drag for a moment into the light, any… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
I begin to see what marriage is for. It's to keep people away from each other. Sometimes I think that two people… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“Their long years together had shown him that it did not so much matter if marriage was a dull duty, as long… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“Archer had reverted to all his old inherited ideas about marriage. It was less trouble to conform with the tradition and treat… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“Poor May!" he said. "Poor? Why poor?" she echoed with a strained laugh. "Because I shall never be able to open a… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
As he paid the hansom and followed his wife's long train into the house he took refuge in the comforting platitude that… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“You might as well tell me there was nobody but Adam in the garden when Eve picked the apple. You say your… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“Do you know, I began to see what marriage is for. It’s to keep people away from each other. Sometimes I think… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“He was a poor man, the husband of a sickly woman, whom his desertion would leave alone and destitute; and even if… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“If you're as detached as that, why does the obsolete institution of marriage survive with you?" Oh, it still has its uses.… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
I wonder, among all the tangles of this mortal coil, which one contains tighter knots to undo, and consequently suggests more tugging,… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
With a shiver of foreboding he saw his marriage becoming what most of the other marriages about him were: a dull association… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
The real marriage of true minds is for any two people to possess a sense of humor or irony pitched in exactly… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“Suddenly the air was full of that deep clangor of bells which periodically covers Rome with a roof of silver.” — Edith Wharton Copy Share
“Untrained human nature was not frank and innocent; it was full of the twists and defences of an instinctive guile. And he felt himself… — Edith Wharton Copy Share
“High Pasture Come up--come up: in the dim vale below The autumn mist muffles the fading trees, But on this keen hill-pasture, though the… — Edith Wharton Copy Share
“Two ways to be a light for all, is to be a flaming candle or the mirror that reflects it” — Edith Wharton Copy Share
“... no treasure-house of Atreus was ever as rich as a well-stored memory.” — Edith Wharton Copy Share
“...the endless labour of rolling human stupidity up the steep hill of understanding.” — Edith Wharton Copy Share
“he saw his marriage becoming what most of the other marriages about him were: a dull association of material and social interests held together… — Edith Wharton Copy Share
The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend! — Edith Wharton Copy Share
With a shiver of foreboding he saw his marriage becoming what most of the other marriages about him were: a dull association of material… — Edith Wharton Copy Share
A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never… — Edith Wharton Copy Share
There is too much sour grapes for my taste in the present American attitude. The time to denounce the bankers was when we were… — Edith Wharton Copy Share
“But in a few years more perhaps there may be; for, deep within us as the ghost instinct lurks, I seem to see it… — Edith Wharton Copy Share
Dialogue in fiction should be reserved for the culminating moments and regarded as the spray into which the great wave of narrative breaks in… — Edith Wharton Copy Share
“These Americans, under their forthcoming manner, their surface-gush, as some might call it, have an odd reticence about what goes on underneath.” — Edith Wharton Copy Share
