If the ability to read carries the average man no higher than the gossip of his neighbours, if he asks nothing more nourishing out of books and the theatre than he gets hanging about the store, the bar and the street-corner, then culture is bound to be dragged down to him instead of his being lifted up by culture. Edith Wharton
About This Quote

If the ability to read carries the average man no higher than the gossip of his neighbors, if he asks nothing more nourishing out of books and the theater than he gets hanging around the store, bar and street corner, then culture is bound to be dragged down to him instead of being lifted up by culture.

Source: French Ways And Their Meaning

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More Quotes By Edith Wharton
  1. Each time you happen to me all over again.
  2. There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of one's self, the very meaning of one's soul.
  3. Do you remember what you said to me once? That you could help me only by loving me? Well-you did love me for a moment and it helped me. It has always helped me.
  4. Genius is of small use to a woman who does not know how to do her hair.
  5. To know when to be generous and when firm–that is wisdom.
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