The House of Mirth Quotes

“You might as well say that the only way not to think about air is to have enough to breathe. That is true enough in a sense, but your lungs are thinking about the air if you are not. And so it is with your rich people: they may not be thinking of money, but they’re breathing it all the while; take them into another element and see how they squirm and gasp!”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

“Isn’t it natural that I should try to belittle all the things I can’t offer you?”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

“She read, too, in his answering gaze the delicious confirmation of her triumph, and for the moment it seemed to her that it was for him only she cared to be beautiful.”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

“She rose, and walking across the floor stood gazing at herself for a long time in the brightly lit mirror above the mantelpiece. The lines in her face came out terribly; she looked old; and when a girl looks old to herself, how does she look to other people?”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

“That’s Lily all over, you know: she works like a slave preparing the ground and sowing her seeds, but the day she ought to be reaping the harvest, she oversleeps herself or goes off on a picnic.”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

“After all, what did he know of her life? Only as much as she had chosen to show him, and measured by the world’s estimate, how little that was!”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

“Her whole being dilated in an atmosphere of luxury; it was the background she required, the only climate she could breathe in.”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

“Miss Corby's role was jocularity. She always entered the conversation with a handspring.”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

“Mortifica menos considerarse poco popular que insignificante, y la vanidad prefiere suponer que la indiferencia es una forma latente de antipatía.”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

“Selden se echó el sombrero un poco hacia atrás y la miró de reojo.
—El éxito... ¿qué es el éxito? Me interesa conocer su definición.
—¿Del éxito? —Lily titubeó—. Bueno, supongo que es obtener de la vida todo lo que se pueda. Es una cualidad relativa, después de todo. ¿No
coincide su idea con la mía?
—¿Mi idea? ¡En absoluto! —Se incorporó con súbita energía, apoyó los codos en las rodillas y fijó la mirada en los plácidos campos—. Mi idea del éxito —dijo— es la libertad personal.
—¿Libertad? ¿De las preocupaciones?
—De todo... del dinero, de la pobreza, de la comodidad y la ansiedad, de todos los accidentes materiales. Mantener una especie de república del
espíritu... a esto llamo yo éxito.”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

“Al contemplar Selden la mano, delicada como una pieza de marfil antiguo, de uñas largas y rosadas, y el brazalete de zafiros resbalando por la muñeca, le impresionó la ironía de sugerirle una vida como la que había elegido su prima Gertrude Farish. Lily era de modo tan manifiesto víctima de la civilización que la había procreado, que incluso los eslabones de su pulsera parecían esposas destinadas a encadenarla a su destino.”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

“Ah, no--she was too intelligent not to be honest with herself. She knew that she hated dinginess as much as her mother had hated it, and to her last breath she meant to fight against it, dragging herself up again and again above its flood till she gained the bright pinnacles of success which presented such a slippery surface to her clutch.”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

“Since she had been brought up to be ornamental, she could hardly blame herself for failing to serve any practical purpose;”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

“The phrase comes from that treasury of literary titles, Ecclesiastes, 7:4: “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”
― Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth