No insect hangs its nest on threads as frail as those which will sustain the weight of human vanity.

An education is like a crumbling building that needs constant upkeep with repairs and additions.

... naturalness is not always consonant with taste.

I'm afraid I'm an incorrigible life-lover, life-wonderer, and adventurer.

But marriage is one long sacrifice.... Chapter 21, Medora Manson speaking to Newland Archer

In our hurried world too little value is attached to the part of the connoisseur and dilettante.

Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as though it were dangerous to meet it alone.