If only we'd stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time. — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“I can give you a cup of tea in no time-and you won't meet any bores.” — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
There are moments when a man's imagination, so easily subdued to what it lives in, suddenly rises above its daily level and… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
The taste of the usual was like cinders in his mouth, and there were moments when he felt as if he were… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
Yes, you have been away a very long time.' 'Oh, centuries and centuries; so long,' she said, 'that I'm sure I'm dead… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
Little as she was addicted to solitude, there had come to be moments when it seemed a welcome escape from the empty… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
When people ask for time, it's always for time to say no. Yes has one more letter in it, but it doesn't… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
Do you remember what you said to me once? That you could help me only by loving me? Well-you did love me… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
He knelt by the bed and bent over her, draining their last moment to its lees; and in the silence there passed… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“For the first time he was face to face with his hovering dread: he was judging where he still adored.” — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
His whole future seemed suddenly to be unrolled before him; and passing down its endless emptiness he saw the dwindling figure of… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
Archer was too intelligent to think that a young woman like Ellen Olenska would necessarily recoil from everything that reminded her of… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“She lay for a long time listening to the mysterious sounds given forth by old houses at night, the undefinable creakings, rustlings,… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“One of the surprises of her unoccupied state was the discovery that time, when it is left to itself and no definite… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
Dialogue in fiction should be reserved for the culminating moments and regarded as the spray into which the great wave of narrative… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“They had never before avowed their inclination so openly, and Ethan, for a moment, had the illusion that he was a free… — 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
“Mr. Popple, in fact, held that the personality of the artist should at all times be dissembled behind that of the man.… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“Since the fanciful vision of the future that had flitted through her imagination at their first meeting she had hardly ever thought… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“It was a kiss with a future in it: like a ring slipped upon her soul. And now, in the dreadful pause… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
Presently he rose and approached the case before which she stood. Its glass shelves were crowded with small broken objects —hardly recognisable… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“But his thoughts were not all dark. Undine's moods still infected him, and when she was happy he felt an answering lightness.… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“She had everything she wanted, but she still felt, at times, that there were other things she might want if she knew… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“There were moments when she longed blindly for anything different, anything strange, remote and untried; but the utmost reach of her imagination… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“What could he and she really know of each other, since it was his duty, as a "decent" fellow, to conceal his… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
There is too much sour grapes for my taste in the present American attitude. The time to denounce the bankers was when… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
“She had found out that she had given herself to the exclusive and the dowdy when the future belonged to the showy… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there's only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
But after a moment a sense of waste and ruin overcame him. There they were, close together and safe and shut in;… — 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
