The real alchemy consists in being able to turn gold back again into something else; and that's the secret that most of your friends have lost.

...though she had not had the strength to shake off the spell that bound her to him she had lost all spontaneity of feeling, and seemed to herself to be passively awaiting a fate she could not avert.

And you'll sit beside me, and we'll look, not at visions, but at realities.

Only the fact that we are unaware how well our nearest know us enables us to live with them.

There is someone I must say goodbye to. Oh, not you - we are sure to see each other again - but the Lily Bart you knew. I have kept her with me all this time, but now we are going to part, and I have brought her back to you - I am going to leave her here. When I go out presently she will not go with me. I shall like to think that she has stayed with you.

Yes, one gets over things. But there are certain memories one can't bit on.

Only the fact that we are unaware how well our nearest know us enables us to live with them. Love is the most impregnable refuge of self-esteem, and we hate the eye that reaches to our nakedness. Edith Wharton ~ The Touchstone