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
To know when to be generous and when firm—that is wisdom.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Wisdom involves knowing the right times to be kind and to stand your ground.
This quote emphasizes that true wisdom lies in discernment and the ability to balance generosity with assertiveness. It suggests that understanding the appropriate moments to offer kindness versus when to be resolute is a hallmark of a wise individual.
Themes
WisdomGenerosityFirmnessBalanceKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the qualities of a good leader.
More from Edith Wharton
All quotes →They 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 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
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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I'm practicing the discipline of not having to have the last word.
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Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen.
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Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.
Frederick DouglassRead