Edith Wharton

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”

“Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope.”

“Life is the only real counselor; wisdom unfiltered through personal experience does not become a part of the moral tissue.”

“High Pasture Come up--come up: in the dim vale below The autumn mist muffles the fading trees, But on this keen hill-pasture, though the breeze Has stretched the thwart boughs bare to meet the snow, Night is not, autumn is not--but the flow Of vast, ethereal and irradiate seas, Poured from the far w...”

“Beware of monotony; it's the mother of all the deadly sins.”

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that receives it.”