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
Once more it was borne in on him that marriage was not the safe anchorage he had been taught to think, but a voyage on uncharted seas.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Marriage is unpredictable and can be filled with uncertainties.
In this quote, Edith Wharton reflects on the misconception that marriage provides a stable and secure foundation. Instead, she suggests that it is more akin to embarking on a journey into the unknown, where challenges and surprises await, highlighting the complexities of marital relationships.
Themes
MarriageRelationshipsLifeUncertaintyVoyage
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a wedding toast to highlight the journey of marriage.
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
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.
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
Similar quotes
But I'd rather help than watch. I'd rather have a heart than a mind. I'd rather expose too much than too little. I'd rather say hello to strangers than be afraid of them. I would rather know all this about myself than have more money than I need. I'd rather have something to love than a way to impress you.
Po BronsonRead
Being gay is not a Western invention. It is a human reality.
Hillary ClintonRead
By the time a child reaches out to an adult, the vast majority of kids have been dealing with the bullying and trying to ignore it for a long time.
Rosalind WisemanRead
If you see me as just the princess then you misunderstand who I am and what I have been through.
Mariah CareyRead
I don't think there should be anything that women are embarrassed to talk about in the 21st century, because for the last 100,000 years, men have said everything that's on their minds and described everything they have done.
Caitlin MoranRead
The intense happiness of our union is derived in a high degree from the perfect freedom with which we each follow and declare our own impressions.
George EliotRead