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
I was just a screw or cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the feeling of insignificance and loss of purpose when one feels disconnected from the larger systems of life.
Edith Wharton's quote expresses a deep sense of existential angst, as it portrays life as a great machine in which individuals play small, yet crucial, roles. When one feels they no longer fit or are needed within this machine, it can lead to feelings of lack of purpose and worth, highlighting how interconnected our roles and identities are within the broader societal framework.
Themes
PurposeInsignificanceExistentialismIdentityConnection
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about finding purpose in retirement, one might quote this to reflect on the importance of roles in life.
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.
Edith WhartonRead
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.
Edith WhartonRead
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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