Henry James Quotes - 9quotes.com

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
It takes an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition.
Written by Henry James
I think I don't regret a single 'excess' of my responsive youth - I only regret, in my chilled age, certain occasions and possibilities I didn't embrace.
Written by Henry James
I adore adverbs; they are the only qualifications I really much respect.
Written by Henry James
There are two kinds of taste, the taste for emotions of surprise and the taste for emotions of recognition.
Written by Henry James
I've always been interested in people, but I've never liked them.
Written by Henry James
Cats and monkeys; monkeys and cats; all human life is there.
Written by Henry James
It is, I think, an indisputable fact that Americans are, as Americans, the most self-conscious people in the world, and the most addicted to the belief that the other nations of the earth are in a conspiracy to under value them.
Written by Henry James
The face of nature and civilization in this our country is to a certain point a very sufficient literary field. But it will yield its secrets only to a really grasping imagination. To write well and worthily of American things one need even more than elsewhere to be a master.
Written by Henry James
The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.
Written by Henry James
What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?
Written by Henry James
One might enumerate the items of high civilization, as it exists in other countries, which are absent from the texture of American life, until it should become a wonder to know what was left.
Written by Henry James
People talk about the conscience, but it seems to me one must just bring it up to a certain point and leave it there. You can let your conscience alone if you're nice to the second housemaid.
Written by Henry James
The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life.
Written by Henry James
Though there are some disagreeable things in Venice there is nothing so disagreeable as the visitors.
Written by Henry James
Ideas are, in truth, force.
Written by Henry James
The superiority of one man's opinion over another's is never so great as when the opinion is about a woman.
Written by Henry James
Do not mind anything that anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.
Written by Henry James
Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.
Written by Henry James
Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what have you had?
Written by Henry James
A man who pretends to understand women is bad manners. For him to really to understand them is bad morals.
Written by Henry James
I hold any writer sufficiently justified who is himself in love with his theme.
Written by Henry James
The only success worth one's powder was success in the line of one's idiosyncrasy... what was talent but the art of being completely whatever one happened to be?
Written by Henry James
We work in the dark - we do what we can - we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.
Written by Henry James
Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue.
Written by Henry James
If I were to live my life over again, I would be an American. I would steep myself in America, I would know no other land.
Written by Henry James
Life is a predicament which precedes death.
Written by Henry James
In art economy is always beauty.
Written by Henry James
Deep experience is never peaceful.
Written by Henry James
Money's a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet.
Written by Henry James
It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.
Written by Henry James

Join our feeds to automatically receive the latest headlines, news, and information formatted for your club's website or news reader.

Social connect: