Quotes from The Portrait of a Lady

His kiss was like white lightning, a flash that spread, and spread again, and stayed.

When you've lived as long as I you'll see that every human being has his shell and that you must take the shell into account. By the shell I mean the whole envelope of circumstances.

If there's a thing in the world I'm fond of, it's my personal independence.

I always want to know the things one shouldn't do.” “So as to do them?” asked her aunt. “So as to choose,” said Isabel.

I should like to put a little wind in her sails.

A swift carriage, of a dark night, rattling with four horses over roads that one can't see—that's my idea of happiness.

I call people rich when they're able to meet the requirements of their imagination.

I don't pretend to know what people are meant for. I only know what I can do with them.

There's no more usual basis of union than a mutual misunderstanding.

And remember this, that if you've been hated you've also been loved. Ah but, Isabel—adored!

Don't try to be other than you are. Try only to be the very best of that.

It was the house of darkness, the house of dumbness, the house of suffocation.

You want to drain the cup of experience.” “No, I don't wish to touch the cup of experience. It's a poisoned drink! I only want to see for myself.

No, I'm not conventional: I'm convention itself.

She had a fixed determination to regard the world as a place of brightness, of free expansion, of irresistible action.

She had an immense curiosity about life and was constantly staring and wondering.

You must have suffered first, have suffered greatly, have gained some miserable knowledge. In that way your eyes are opened to it.

I shall never make anything of my life. I shall live and die a poor stick.