Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.”
- Source
- Rip Van Winkle
- Date
- 1819
Meaning of “A tart temper never mellows with age, and…”
Irving uses comic exaggeration to portray how an unchecked habit of sharp speech can harden rather than soften over time.
Where does it come from?
Rip Van Winkle, Project Gutenberg #64636. The narrator applies this satirical and strongly gendered sentence to Dame Van Winkle during Rip’s unhappy marriage; it is period literary characterization, not a universal claim about women or relationships.