"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."
"Archer reddened to the temples but dared not move or speak: it was as if her words had been some rare butterfly that the least motion might drive off on startled wings, but that might gather a flock if it were left undisturbed."
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Source: Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.2116, Delphi Classics
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"The desire for symmetry, for balance, for rhythm in form as well as in sound, is one of the most inveterate of human instincts."
"I despair of the Republic! Such dreariness, such whining sallow women, such utter absence of the amenities, such crass food, crass manners, crass landscape!! What a horror it is for a whole nation to be developing without the sense of beauty, and eating bananas for breakfast."
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