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
We live in our own souls as in an unmapped region, a few acres of which we have cleared for our habitation; while of the nature of those nearest us we know but the boundaries that march with ours.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the complexity of our inner selves and the limited understanding we have of others.
Edith Wharton suggests that each person contains a vast, unexplored inner world, akin to an unmapped region that we inhabit. While we may have familiar territories of ourselves that we understand, our knowledge of others is restricted to the superficial boundaries of interaction, indicating the deep nature of individuality and the challenges in truly knowing another person's soul.
Themes
SoulUnderstandingIndividualityBoundariesMap
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion about identity, this quote can help illustrate the complexity of self-awareness.
More from Edith Wharton
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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
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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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