Quotes by Edith Wharton

I suppose there is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person however dear and beloved but an expansion an interpretation of ones self.

If only wed stop trying to be happy wed have a pretty good time.

Life is either always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope.

In any really good subject one has only to probe deep enough to come to tears.

She threw back her head with a laugh that made her chins ripple like little waves.

It is less mortifying to believe ones self unpopular than insignificant, and vanity prefers to assume that indifference is a latent form of unfriendliness.

My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet.

Life is the only real counselor wisdom unfiltered through personal experience does not become a part of the moral tissue.

True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision.

There are moments when a mans imagination, so easily subdued to what it lives in, suddenly rises above its daily level and surveys the long windings of destiny.

“Her failure was a useful preliminary to success.”

“It had evidently not occurred to her as yet that those who consent to share the bread of adversity may want the whole cake of prosperity for themselves.”

“One of the surprises of her unoccupied state was the discovery that time, when it is left to itself and no definite demands are made on it, cannot be trusted to move at any recognized pace. Usually it loiters; but just when one has come to count upon its slowness, it may suddenly break into a wild irrational gallop.”

“There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of ones self, the very meaning of ones soul.”

“Each time you happen to me all over again.”

“If only wed stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time.”

“There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a fairly good time.”

“They seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods.”