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
The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!
Interpretation
What this quote means
True loneliness is feeling isolated even in the company of others who are kind but don't know your true self.
In this quote, Edith Wharton expresses the profound loneliness one can feel when surrounded by seemingly caring individuals who expect pretenses rather than authenticity. It highlights the emotional disconnect that can occur when individuals are unable to reveal their true selves due to the pressures of social expectations, creating a barrier to genuine connection and understanding.
Themes
LonelinessAuthenticityRelationshipsPretenseIsolation
In practice
Example use cases
Sharing this quote in a discussion about mental health and the importance of being genuine.
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
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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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