Henry James Quotes: top 100 famous quotes about Henry James

Henry James Quotes & Sayings

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Expatriated Americans, even Henry James himself, have always seemed to me somewhat anchorless, rudderless, drifting before thewind. — Virginia Gildersleeve

It might seem that an egg which has succeeded in being fresh has done all that can reasonably be expected of it. — Henry James

It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature. — Henry James

Once you've put one of his [Henry James] books down, you simply can't pick it up again. — Mark Twain

I have never allowed a gentleman to dictate to me, or to interfere with anything I do. — Henry James

Mrs. Penniman always, even in conversation, italicised her personal pronouns. — Henry James

Americans will eat garbage provided you sprinkle it liberally with ketchup. — Henry James

I recall my fleeting instants in Savannah as the taste of a cup charged to the brim. — Henry James

She had a certain way of looking at life which he took as a personal offense. — Henry James

Life is a predicament which precedes death. — Henry James

I never was what I should be. — Henry James

agreeable in the sense of floating there in infinite isolation and leisure that it was — Henry James

The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life. — Henry James

The news that Daisy Miller was surrounded by half a dozen wonderful mustaches checked Winterbourne's impulse to go straightway to see her. — Henry James

Some sunny empty grass-grown court lost in the heart of the labyrinthine pile. — Henry James

We of America are especially fitted to visualize and to understand the marvellous transformation of a wilderness into a land of splendid cities. — James Henry Breasted

The first physician who is known to have counted the pulse, Herophilos of Alexandria (born 300 B.C.), lived in Egypt. — James Henry Breasted

I could come back to America..to die..but never, never to live. — Henry James

One's theories, after all, matter little, it is one's humor that is the great thing. — Henry James

Kidd, turn off the light to spare my blushes. — Henry James

He had long decided that abundant laughter should be the embellishment of the remainder of his days. — Henry James

Since she might not be splendid, she would at least be immaculate. — Henry James

I intend to judge things for myself; to judge wrongly, I think, is more honorable than not to judge at all. — Henry James

Yes, that's the bore of comfort," said Lord Warburton. "We only know when we're uncomfortable. — Henry James

When once the gate is opened to self-torture, the whole army of fiends files in. — Henry James

The finer natures were those that shone at the larger times. — Henry James

You are good for nothing unless you are clever. — Henry James

Nothing irritates me so as the flatness of people's imagination. — Henry James

The more you know the more unhappy you are — Henry James

In the long run an opinion often borrows credit from the forbearance of its patrons. — Henry James

True admiration," said Mrs. Keith, "is one half respect and the other half self-denial. — Henry James

finished. I had to tell — Henry James

I hold any writer sufficiently justified who is himself in love with his theme. — Henry James

Make up to a good one and marry here, and your life will become much more interesting. — Henry James

how little he placed me and — Henry James

To kill a human being is, after all, the least injury you can do him. — Henry James

We were alone with the quiet day, and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped. — Henry James

It takes an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition. — Henry James

The fatal futility of Fact. — Henry James

What's a man,' she pursued, 'especially an ambitious one, without a variety of ideas? — Henry James

I don't want everyone to like me; I should think less of myself if some people did. — Henry James

But I care myself if I tell fibs; I never tell them unless there's something rather good to be gained. — 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. — Henry James

She had had a real fright but had fallen back to earth. The odd thing was that in her fall her fear too had been dashed down and broken. It was gone. — Henry James

The most celebrated system of jurisprudence known to the world begins, as it ends, with a Code. — Henry James Sumner Maine

One is oneself a fine consequence. — Henry James

Novelist-Citizen of Two Countries Interpreter of his Generation on both Sides of the Sea. — Henry James

I have only to let myself go! So I have said all my life, yet I have never fully done it. — Henry James

And her deepest enjoyment was to feel the continuity between the movements of her own soul and the agitations of the world — 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. — Henry James

Been changes) on the water-side, a little way beyond the spot at which — Henry James

Henry James's definition of the purpose of a novel: To help the human heart to know itself. — P.D. James

His serenity was but the array of wild flowers niched in his ruin. — Henry James

You're like a picture; you ought to be enclosed in a gilt frame and stand against the wall. — Henry James

Poor Catherine's dignity was not aggressive; it never sat in state; but if you pushed far enough you could find it. Her father had pushed very far. — Henry James

And the figure of the income he had arrived at had never been high enough to look any one in the face. — Henry James

Henry James would probably roll over in his grave if he knew he was in any way responsible for this book. — Garth Risk Hallberg

Be one on whom nothing is lost. — Henry James

Art is a point of view, and a genius way of looking at things. — Henry James

Money's a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet. — Henry James

Though it might have its momentary alarms, paternity is not an exciting vocation. — Henry James

Things are always different from what they might be. — Henry James

Which of my two critics was I to believe? I didn't worry about it and very soon made up my mind they were both idiots. — Henry James

Then again I shifted my eyes-I faced what I had to face. — Henry James

One doesn't defend one's god; one's god is in himself a defense. — Henry James

The epoch of Customary Law, and of its custody by a privileged order, is a very remarkable one. — Henry James Sumner Maine

It's very silly," she said, "but I go on with it in spite of myself. I'm afraid I'm too easily pleased; no novel is so silly I can't read it. — Henry James

It is no wonder he wins every game. He has never done a thing in his life exept play games — Henry James

There may be unselfish natures, there may be disinterested feelings. — Henry James

was all very interesting." She continued to look at me. "You don't think that," she then simply stated. "What have I to gain — Henry James

The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have. — Henry James

There is only one recipe - to care a great deal for the cookery. — Henry James

... a prudent archer has always a second bowstring — Henry James

A family is a little world within doors; the miniature resemblance of the great worls without — Henry James

I looked at the place with my heart beating as I had known it to do in the dentist's parlor. — Henry James

She has been crying here and going on - she has quite upset me. — Henry James

The ancient codes were doubtless originally suggested by the discovery and diffusion of the art of writing. — Henry James Sumner Maine

He said at another time that she had no heart; and he added in a moment that she had given it all away - in small pieces, like a frosted wedding-cake. — Henry James

And she really had tones to make justice weep. — Henry James

She is like a revolving lighthouse; pitch darkness alternating with a dazzling brilliancy! — Henry James

The secret of what passed between him and the strange girl who — Henry James

Women never dine alone. When they dine alone they don't dine. — Henry James

Try to be someone upon whom nothing is lost! — Henry James

The historic atmosphere was there, certainly; but the historic atmosphere, scientifically considered, was no better than a villainous miasma — Henry James

Disapproval is a very important factor in all progress. There has really never been any progress without it. — James Henry Breasted

Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. — Henry James

Henry James proposed asking of art three modest and appropriate questions: What is the artist trying to do? Does he do it? Was it worth doing? — Robert Adams

I'm glad you like adverbs - I adore them; they are the only qualifications I really much respect. — Henry James

The distinction between nerves and vessels was not demonstrated until the Third Century B.C., when it was made clear by Erasistratos. — James Henry Breasted

Our friend was slightly nervous; that went with his character as a student of fine prose, went with the artist's general disposition to vibrate — Henry James

Well, well, Henry James is pretty good, though he is of the nineteenth century, and that glaringly. — Robert Louis Stevenson

Henry James says somewhere that if you have to make notes on how a thing has struck you, it probably hasn't struck you. — Wallace Stegner

Art is long. If we work for ourselves of course we must hurry. If we work for her we must often pause. — Henry James

Why indeed should we perpetually be thinking whether things are good for us, as if we were patients lying in a hospital? — Henry James

The movement of the progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from Status to Contract. — Henry James Sumner Maine

In American, the gentlemen obey the ladies. — Henry James

There were always people to snatch at you, and it would never occur to them that they were eating you up. They did that without tasting. — Henry James

The nearest we have to a Henry James or an Edith Wharton of the East Coast's Wasp upper classes. — Charlotte Curtis

Most English talk is a quadrille in a sentry-box. — Henry James

The practice of "reviewing" ... in general has nothing in common with the art of criticism. — Henry James