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
He had to deal all at once with the packed regrets and stifled memories of an inarticulate lifetime.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the overwhelming nature of confronting one's past regrets and unexpressed experiences.
Edith Wharton's quote encapsulates the heavy burden that comes with facing a lifetime of unarticulated memories and regrets. It suggests that when one reaches a certain point in life, they must come to terms with the unresolved feelings and experiences that have accumulated over time. This can be a profound and challenging journey as it requires introspection and acceptance of the past.
Themes
RegretsMemoriesLifeIntrospectionReflection
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech, one might use this quote to encourage students to reflect on their choices and experiences.
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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Only a fool would leave the enjoyment of rainbows to the opticians. Or give the science of optics the last word on the matter.
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One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. By the time the mind is able to comprehend what has happened, the wounds of the heart are already too deep.
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I'd finally come to understand what it had been: a yearning for a way out, when actually what I had wanted to find was a way in.
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