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's you who are telling me; opening my eyes to things I'd looked at so long that I'd ceased to see them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of perception and awareness, especially when someone else helps us see things from a different perspective.
In this quote, Edith Wharton expresses gratitude towards another person for their ability to reveal insights and truths about the world that may have become obscured to her due to familiarity. It highlights how often we overlook details in our lives simply because we are so used to them, and how others can provide us with fresh perspectives that enhance our understanding and appreciation of those familiar things.
Themes
PerceptionAwarenessUnderstandingInsightPerspective
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a speech about the value of introspection and new perspectives.
More from Edith Wharton
All quotes βThey seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods
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Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.
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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 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
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