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
The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!
Interpretation
True loneliness is feeling isolated even in the company of others who are kind but don't know your true self.
In this quote, Edith Wharton expresses the profound loneliness one can feel when surrounded by seemingly caring individuals who expect pretenses rather than authenticity. It highlights the emotional disconnect that can occur when individuals are unable to reveal their true selves due to the pressures of social expectations, creating a barrier to genuine connection and understanding.
In practice
Sharing this quote in a discussion about mental health and the importance of being genuine.
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.
They seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods
Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.
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.
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
There are two ways to spread happiness; either be the light who shines it or be the mirror who reflects it.
Dear young people, Jesus wants to be your friend, and wants you to spread the joy of this friendship everywhere.
HIV does not make people dangerous to know, so you can shake their hands and give them a hug: Heaven knows they need it.
Hate and love are reciprocal passions.
If you want to know where I come by the passionate commitment I have to bringing people together without regard to race, it all started with my grandfather.
It's not like we wanted to talk about the fact that we're gay all the time, but the world has forced it to be an issue.
As much progress as we think we've made with legislation, litigation and education, anti-Semitism still continues to be the No. 2 hate crime in the United States. You can't eliminate it, but you can try to keep a lid on it.
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