They are all alike you know. They hold their tongues for years and you think you're safe, but when the opportunity comes they remember everything.
Edith WhartonRead
I despair of the Republic! Such dreariness, such whining sallow women, such utter absence of the amenities, such crass food, crass manners, crass landscape!! What a horror it is for a whole nation to be developing without the sense of beauty, and eating bananas for breakfast.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses disillusionment with society's lack of beauty and refinement.
Edith Wharton's quote conveys a deep sense of despair regarding the cultural and aesthetic decline of society. She highlights that the absence of beauty and refinement in everyday life, symbolized by crass manners and simple foods, creates a bleak and unappealing existence for the nation. Wharton mourns the loss of the 'amenities' that contribute to a more fulfilling life, suggesting that a lack of appreciation for beauty diminishes the human experience.
Themes
BeautyDespairSocietyCultureRefinement
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on cultural appreciation, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of beauty in society.
More from Edith Wharton
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And I wonder, among all the tangles of this mortal coil, which one contains tighter knots to undo, & consequently suggests more tugging, & pain, & diversified elements of misery, than the marriage tie.
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As he paid the hansom and followed his wife's long train into the house he took refuge in the comforting platitude that the first six months were always the most difficult in marriage. 'After that I suppose we shall have pretty nearly finished rubbing off each other’s angles,' he reflected; but the worst of it was that May's pressure was already bearing on the very angles whose sharpness he most wanted to keep
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There are two ways to spread happiness; either be the light who shines it or be the mirror who reflects it.
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