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
Once more it was borne in on him that marriage was not the safe anchorage he had been taught to think, but a voyage on uncharted seas.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Marriage is unpredictable and can be filled with uncertainties.
In this quote, Edith Wharton reflects on the misconception that marriage provides a stable and secure foundation. Instead, she suggests that it is more akin to embarking on a journey into the unknown, where challenges and surprises await, highlighting the complexities of marital relationships.
Themes
MarriageRelationshipsLifeUncertaintyVoyage
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a wedding toast to highlight the journey of marriage.
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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We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what was native has been stolen from us, the love of Black women for each other.
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They say it's the white man I should fear, But it's my own kind doin' all the killin' here.
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