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
It was easy enough to despise the world, but decidedly difficult to find any other habitable region.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the struggle of finding a better alternative to a flawed world.
Edith Wharton's quote speaks to the innate human tendency to criticize and despise the state of the world we live in, while simultaneously highlighting the difficulty of identifying or escaping to a better, more favorable place. It suggests a contemplation of our environment, suggesting that while it is easy to cast judgment, finding viable solutions or alternatives is a far more complex challenge.
Themes
WorldDespiseHabitableRegionAlternatives
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about resilience and adaptability in challenging situations.
More from Edith Wharton
All quotes βThey seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods
Edith WhartonRead
Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.
Edith WhartonRead
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.
Edith WhartonRead
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 otherβs 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
Edith WhartonRead
There are two ways to spread happiness; either be the light who shines it or be the mirror who reflects it.
Edith WhartonRead
Similar quotes
We must mirror God's love in the midst of a world full of hatred. We are the mirrrors of God's love, so we may show Jesus by our lives
Corrie Ten BoomRead
A very great part of the mischiefs that vex the world arises from words.
Edmund BurkeRead
Any mental activity is easy if it need not be subjected to reality.
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and for a moment he held out his hands as if to steady himself or as if to bless the ground there or perhaps as if to slow the world that was rushing away and seemed to care nothing for the old or the young or rich or poor or dark or pale or he or she. Nothing for their struggles, nothing for their names. Nothing for the living or the dead.
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Your life is an expression of all your thoughts.
Marcus AureliusRead
True perfection is a bold quest to seek. Only the willing and true of heart will seek the betterment of many.
SocratesRead