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
There are two ways to spread happiness; either be the light who shines it or be the mirror who reflects it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Happiness can be shared by either actively spreading it or by reflecting the joy from others.
This quote by Edith Wharton emphasizes the dual nature of spreading happiness. One can either take the initiative to generate happiness like a light or, if they are not in a position to create it themselves, they can still play a vital role by reflecting the positivity and joy of those around them, thereby contributing to the happiness of others in a more passive yet just as important way.
Themes
HappinessJoyLightReflectionPositivity
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a motivational speech about spreading joy in the community.
More from Edith Wharton
All quotes βThey 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 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
The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!
Edith WhartonRead
Similar quotes
I have no name: I am but two days old. What shall I call thee? I happy am, Joy is my name. Sweet joy befall thee!
William BlakeRead
I'm having the time of my life and the fact that I'm still working - how lucky can you get? I'm 90 years old and still able to work as much as I do. That's a privilege.
Betty WhiteRead
I think most of us are raised with preconceived notions of the choices we're supposed to make. We waste so much time making decisions based on someone else's idea of our happiness - what will make you a good citizen or a good wife or daughter or actress. Nobody says, 'Just be happy - go be a cobbler or go live with goats.'
Sandra BullockRead
I like to read in my own house, in any of the rooms I always mean to paint or otherwise improve and never do. Every detail is so familiar to me that it makes almost no claim on my attention.
Marilynne RobinsonRead
To have a cricket on the hearth is the luckiest thing in all the world!
Charles DickensRead
Just try the effect of putting beauty into your life, a little every day. You will find it magical. It will broaden and light up your outlook upon the world as the acquisition of money or fame never can.
Orison Swett MardenRead