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
The difference is that these young people take it for granted that they're going to get whatever they want, and that we almost always took it for granted that we shouldn't. Only, I wonder—the thing one's so certain of in advance: can it ever make one's heart beat as wildly?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the contrasting attitudes towards desire and expectation between generations.
Edith Wharton's quote explores the difference in mindset between younger and older generations regarding desire and fulfillment. While the younger generation assumes they will receive everything they want, the older generation is conditioned to believe they should not take desires for granted. Wharton questions whether such certainty in obtaining one's desires can evoke the same passionate excitement and emotional intensity as the uncertainty experienced by those who are more cautious and restrained in their ambitions.
Themes
DesireExpectationGenerationsCertaintyEmotions
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about generational differences in expectations during a seminar.
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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