Henry James quotes - page 2

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. (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. View quote
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? View quote
Henry James
Money's a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet. View quote
Henry James
She had an unequalled gift, especially pen in hand, of squeezing big mistakes into small opportunities. View quote
Henry James
You wanted to look at life for yourself - but you were not allowed; you were punished for your wish. You were ground in the very mill of the conventional. View quote
Henry James
Ideas are, in truth, force. View quote
Henry James
The fatal futility of Fact. View quote
Henry James
Women never dine alone. When they dine alone they don't dine. View quote
Henry James
Everything about Florence seems to be colored with a mild violet, like diluted wine. View quote
Henry James
[T]here are women who are for all your "times of life." (Henry James)
He is outside of everything, and alien everywhere. He is an aesthetic solitary. His beautiful, light imagination is the wing that on the autumn evening just brushes the dusky window. View quote
Henry James
The time-honoured bread-sauce of the happy ending. View quote
Henry James
Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. View quote
Henry James
There's no more usual basis of union than mutual misunderstanding. View quote
Henry James
The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be . . . View quote
Henry James
It's time to start living the life you've imagined. View quote
Henry James
I'm yours for ever--for ever and ever. Here I stand; I'm as firm as a rock. If you'll only trust me, how little you'll be disappointed. Be mine as I am yours. View quote
Henry James
I call people rich when they're able to meet the requirements of their imagination. View quote
Henry James
And remember this, that if you've been hated, you've also been loved. View quote
Henry James
You must save what you can of your life; you musn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part. (Henry James)
Things are always different than what they might be...If you wait for them to change, you will never do anything. View quote
Henry James
True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self; but the point is not only to get out - you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand. View quote
Henry James
One can't judge till one's forty; before that we're too eager, too hard, too cruel, and in addition much too ignorant. View quote
Henry James
The advantage, the luxury, as well as the torment and responsibility of the novelist, is that there is no limit to what he may attempt as an executant - no limit to his possible experiments, efforts, discoveries, successes. View quote
Henry James