“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.”

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "They are all alike you know. They hold their tongues for years and you think you're safe, but when the opportunity come…" by Edith Wharton?
Edith Wharton photo
Edith Wharton 103
American novelist, short story writer, designer 1862–1937

Related quotes

Philip Pullman photo
Ernest Hemingway photo

“Remember everything is right until it's wrong. You'll know when it's wrong.'
'You think so?”

'I'm quite sure. If you don't it doesn't matter. Nothing will matter then.'
Colonel John Boyle and David in Ch. 7
The Garden of Eden (1986)

Ray Bradbury photo

“The beginning of wisdom, as they say. When you're seventeen you know everything. When you're twenty-seven if you still know everything you're still seventeen.”

Source: Dandelion Wine (1957), p. 142
Context: “I don’t know,” he admitted.
“Well.” She started pouring tea. “To start things off, what do you think of the world?”
“I don’t know anything.”
“The beginning of wisdom, as they say. When you’re seventeen you know everything. When you’re twenty-seven if you still know everything you’re still seventeen.”
“You seem to have learned quite a lot over the years.”
“It is the privilege of old people to seem to know everything. But it’s an act and a mask, like every other act and mask. Between ourselves, we old ones wink at each other and smile, saying, How do you like my mask, my act, my certainty? Isn’t life a play? Don’t I play it well?”
They both laughed quietly.

“You're always the hero when you can pick and choose your memories. You're always the villian when you remember everything.”

When you remember everything you not only remember what you did right, you also remember your mistakes great and small. Also others seldom like to be made aware of their own mistakes that you may remember as well. They tend to get upset when reminded of them.

Brandon Boyd photo

“Just when you thought it was safe to think, in comes mental piracy!”

Brandon Boyd (1976) American rock singer, writer and visual artist

Lyrics, Make Yourself (1999)

“You have many years to live—do things you will be proud to remember when you're old.”

continuity (27) "Manscape"
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

Colum McCann photo
Harry Chapin photo
Ernest Hemingway photo

Related topics