Quotessence
Home / Authors / Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsPeopleThinkingLiteratureEdith WhartonWayKnowsEyeWorldLittlesLongHappinessMadeMindSaidThe House Of MirthWantWellsArtFirsts

Famous Edith Wharton Quotes

“And he felt himself oppressed by this creation of factitious purity, so cunningly manufactured by a conspiracy of mothers and aunts and grandmothers and long-dead ancestresses, because it was supposed to be what he wanted, what he had a right to, in order that he might exercise his lordly pleasure in smashing it like an image made of snow.”

LongMadeMightWantedMotherOrderFeltPleasureCreationExerciseSnowSupposed To BePurityGrandmotherConspiracyOppressedAuntSmashing
Book:Delphi Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)
Create image

“Presently he rose and approached the case before which she stood. Its glass shelves were crowded with small broken objects —hardly recognisable domestic utensils, ornaments and personal trifles — made of glass, of clay, of discoloured bronze and other time-blurred substances. 'It seems cruel,' she said, 'that after a while nothing matters... any more than these little things, that used to be necessary and important to forgotten people, and now have to be guessed at under a magnifying glass and labeled: "Use unknown".'”

PeopleLittlesMadeSaidImportantMatterUseSeemsUsedTimeCasesObjectsBrokenRoseForgottenGlassesUsed To BeSubstanceLittle ThingsShelvesClayCrowdedTriflesOrnamentsBronzeMagnifyingNothing MattersMagnifying GlassUtensils
Author:Edith Wharton
Create image

“If I could have made the change sooner I daresay I should never have given a thought to the literary delights of Paris or London; for life in the country is the only state which has always completely satisfied me, and I had never been allowed to gratify it, even for a few weeks at a time. Now I was to know the joys of six or seven months a year among fields and woods of my own, and the childish ecstasy of that first spring outing at Mamaroneck swept away all restlessness in the deep joy of communion with the earth.”

IfsKnowsShouldYearsFirstsMadeCountryStatesEarthJoyGivenMy OwnWeekFieldsMonthsSixSpringSevenDelightWoodsLondonSatisfiedParisIf I CouldEcstasyCommunionRestlessnessSwept AwaySeven Months
Author:Edith Wharton
Create image