Edith Wharton

“Real civilisation means an education that extends to the whole of life, in contradistinction to that of school or college: it means an education that forms speech, forms manners, forms taste...”

“I have never known a novel that was good enough to be good in spite of its being adapted to the author's political views.”

“After all, one knows one's weak points so well, that it's rather bewildering to have the critics overlook them and invent others.”

“Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe, old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.”

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

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

“I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story.”

“A New York divorce is in itself a diploma of virtue.”

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

“The American landscape has no foreground and the American mind no background.”

“Misfortune had made Lily supple instead of hardening her, and a pliable substance is less easy to break than a stiff one.”

“My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet.”

“Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before.”

“He had to deal all at once with the packed regrets and stifled memories of an inarticulate lifetime.”

“Habit is necessary; it is the habit of having habits, of turning a trail into a rut, that must be incessantly fought against if one is to remain alive.”

“What's the use of making mysteries? It only makes people want to nose 'em out.”

“True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision.”

“There are moments when a man's imagination, so easily subdued to what it lives in, suddenly rises above its daily level and surveys the long windings of destiny.”

“To be able to look life in the face: that's worth living in a garret for, isn't it?”