Edith wharton

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

The only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it.

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

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