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.
Edith WhartonRead
And I wonder, among all the tangles of this mortal coil, which one contains tighter knots to undo, & consequently suggests more tugging, & pain, & diversified elements of misery, than the marriage tie.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Marriage can present significant challenges and complexities that often lead to emotional pain.
In this quote, Edith Wharton reflects on the intricate and often troublesome nature of marriage, suggesting that it encompasses a variety of struggles and miseries that can create emotional turmoil. She uses the metaphor of 'tangles' and 'knots' to convey how complicated and difficult navigating the bonds of marriage can be, implying that, while marriage can provide joy, it can also lead to considerable suffering and emotional hardship.
Themes
MarriageRelationshipsMiseryPainLove
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a discussion on the challenges of marriage at a counseling session.
More from Edith Wharton
All quotes βThey seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods
Edith WhartonRead
Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.
Edith WhartonRead
As he paid the hansom and followed his wife's long train into the house he took refuge in the comforting platitude that the first six months were always the most difficult in marriage. 'After that I suppose we shall have pretty nearly finished rubbing off each otherβs angles,' he reflected; but the worst of it was that May's pressure was already bearing on the very angles whose sharpness he most wanted to keep
Edith WhartonRead
There are two ways to spread happiness; either be the light who shines it or be the mirror who reflects it.
Edith WhartonRead
The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!
Edith WhartonRead
Similar quotes
Class can 'walk with kings and keep its virtue and talk with crowds and keep the common touch.' Everyone is comfortable with the person who has class because that person is comfortable with himself.
Ann LandersRead
Just as love blinds us to imperfections in others, it magnifies those we see in ourselves. But if this is true, then the opposite must also be the case. We can take comfort in the fact that our faults will be invisible to those who love us. The success or failure of any relationship depends not just on how we feel about each other, but on how we make each other feel about ourselves.
Tonya HurleyRead
When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them.
Martin BuberRead
In societies where men are truly confident of their own worth women are not merely "tolerated", they are valued.
Aung San Suu KyiRead
I think women and children and older people are the three least-respected groups in our society.
Aretha FranklinRead
Men and women -- even man and wife are foreigners. Each has reserves that the other cannot enter into, nor understand. These have the effect of frontiers.
Mark TwainRead