It was the old New York way...the way people who dreaded scandal more than disease, who placed decency above courage, and who considered that nothing was more ill-bred than "scenes", except those who gave rise to them.
Edith WhartonWhen people ask for time, it's always for time to say no. Yes has one more letter in it, but it doesn't take half as long to say.
Edith WhartonNo insect hangs its nest on threads as frail as those which will sustain the weight of human vanity.
Edith WhartonAnd he felt himself oppressed by this creation of factitious purity, so cunningly manufactured by a conspiracy of mothers and aunts and grandmothers and long-dead ancestresses, because it was supposed to be what he wanted, what he had a right to, in order that he might exercise his lordly pleasure in smashing it like an image made of snow.
Edith Wharton