Edith Wharton: Being

Edith Wharton was American novelist, short story writer, designer. Explore interesting quotes on being.

Edith Wharton: 206 quotes6 likes

“There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a fairly good time.”

Source: Ethan Frome and Other Short Fiction

“Don't you ever mind," she asked suddenly, "not being rich enough to buy all the books you want?”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

“The taste of the usual was like cinders in his mouth, and there were moments when he felt as if he were being buried alive under his future.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

“The real alchemy consists in being able to turn gold back again into something else; and that's the secret that most of your friends have lost.”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

“Her whole being dilated in an atmosphere of luxury. It was the background she required, the only climate she could breathe in.”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

“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.”

Letter to Upton Sinclair (19 August 1927)

“How much longer are we going to think it necessary to be "American" before (or in contradistinction to) being cultivated, being enlightened, being humane, & having the same intellectual discipline as other civilized countries?”

Letter to Barrett Wendell (19 July 1919)

“To James's intimates, however, these elaborate hesitancies, far from being an obstacle, were like a cobweb bridge flung from his mind to theirs, an invisible passage over which one knew that silver-footed ironies, veiled jokes, tiptoe malices, were stealing to explode a huge laugh at one's feet.”

Source: A Backward Glance http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200271.txt (1934), Ch. 8