Ah, good conversation - there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.
Edith WhartonShe was very near hating him now; yet the sound of his voice, the way the light fell on his thin, dark hair, the way he sat and moved and wore his clothesโshe was conscious that even these trivial things were inwoven with her deepest life.
Edith WhartonThere is too much sour grapes for my taste in the present American attitude. The time to denounce the bankers was when we were all feeding off their gold plate; not now! At present they have not only my sympathy but my preference. They are the last representatives of our native industries.
Edith WhartonWhat is one's personality, detached from that of the friends with whom fate happens to have linked one? I cannot think of myself apart from the influence of the two or three greatest friendships of my life, and any account of my own growth must be that of their stimulating and enlightening influence.
Edith Wharton