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

She would not have put herself out so much to say so little.

To have you here, you mean-in reach and yet out of reach? To meet you in this way, on the sly? It's the very reverse of what I want.

Beauty (was)a gift which, in the eyes of New York, justified every success, and excused a certain number of failings.

True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision. That new, that personal, vision is attained only by looking long enough at the object represented to make it the writer's own; and the mind which would bring this secret gem to fruition must be able to nourish it with an accumulated wealth of knowledge and experience.

The worst of doing one's duty was that it apparently unfitted one for doing anything else.

Staunch & faithful little lovers that they are, they give back a hundred fold every sign of love one ever gives them — & it mitigates the pang of losing them to know how very happy a little affection has made them .