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
...though she had not had the strength to shake off the spell that bound her to him she had lost all spontaneity of feeling, and seemed to herself to be passively awaiting a fate she could not avert.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the struggle of feeling trapped in a relationship, leading to a loss of emotional spontaneity.
In this quote by Edith Wharton, the protagonist expresses a sense of helplessness and resignation in a relationship that feels suffocating and binding. Despite wanting to break free from this emotional spell, she finds herself devoid of genuine feelings, merely awaiting an inevitable fate that she believes she cannot change. This highlights the psychological impact of unhealthy relationships and the emotional toll they can take on a person's spirit and sense of agency.
Themes
RelationshipsTrappedHelplessnessEmotionsResignation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a discussion on the effects of toxic relationships during a seminar.
More from Edith Wharton
All quotes →They seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods
Edith WhartonRead
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
Similar quotes
Many Palestinians have been living for decades in camps, disconnected from the environment in which they grew up, wallowing in poverty, in neglect, alienation, bitterness, and a deep, unrelenting sense of humiliation.
Ehud OlmertRead
At the core of all anger is a need that is not being fulfilled.
Marshall B. RosenbergRead
We all miss you so much. It just never ends. It feels like we were all wounded in your battle, Caroline. I miss you. I love you.
John GreenRead
Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I'm afraid, even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used to quarrelling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently.
C. S. LewisRead
I've always loved independent women, outspoken women, eccentric women, funny women, flawed women. When someone says about a woman, 'I'm sorry, that's just wrong,' I tend to think she must be doing something right.
Diane KeatonRead
Countless mistakes in marriage, parenting, ministry, and other relationships are failures to balance grace and truth. Sometimes we neglect both. Often we choose one over the other.
Randy AlcornRead