Henry James

Life is a predicament which precedes death.

— Henry James

Ideas are, in truth, force.

— Henry James

I have lived too long in foreign parts

— Henry James

“Nothing is my last word on anything.”

— Henry James

“I’ll watch with you.”

— Henry James

If this was love, love had been overrated.

— Henry James

“Be one on whom nothing is lost.”

— Henry James

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

— Henry James

Cats and monkeys; monkeys and cats; all human life is there.

— Henry James

I have performed the necessary butchery. Here is the bleeding corpse.

— Henry James

I ought to tell you I'm probably your cousin.

— Henry James

“Try to be one of those on whom nothing is lost.”

— Henry James

“Obstacles are those frightening things you see when you take you eyes off your goal.”

— Henry James

It's never permitted to be surprised at the aberrations of born fools.

— Henry James

Oxford lends sweetness to labour and dignity to leisure.

— Henry James

“—his indescribable little air of knowing nothing in the world but love.”

— Henry James

“Is that another sort of joke?" asked the old man. "You've no excuse for being bored anywhere. When I was your age…

— 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

...I am incapable of telling you not to feel. Feel, feel, I say - feel for all you're worth, and even if…

— Henry James

“The Brighton air used of old to make plain girls pretty and pretty girls prettier still - I don't know whether it…

— Henry James

“Though I couldn't make out what she was talking of I was terribly frightened; the absence of a clue gave such a…

— Henry James

I always want to know the things one shouldn't do." "So as to do them?" asked her aunt. "So as to choose."…

— Henry James

Sometimes she went so far as to wish that she should find herself in a difficult position, so that she might have…

— Henry James

“Our relation, all round, exists--it's a reality, and a very good one; we're mixed up, so to speak, and it's too late…

— Henry James

“strolled down the hill without meeting a creature, though I could see through the palings of the Common that that recreative expanse…

— Henry James

“There was a dumb misery about him that irritated her; there was a manly staying of his hand that made her heart…

— Henry James

“You can do a great many things if you're rich which would be severely criticised if you were poor. You can go…

— Henry James

To believe in a child is to believe in the future. Through their aspirations they will save the world. With their combined…

— Henry James

“By the time she had grown sharper,..., she found in her mind a collection of images and echoes to which meanings were…

— Henry James

“Madame Merle had once said that, in her belief, when a friendship ceased to grow, it immediately began to decline - there…

— Henry James

“Sometimes she went so far as to wish that she might find herself some day in a difficult position, so that she…

— Henry James

“Changing the form of one's mission's almost as difficult as changing the shape of one's nose: there they are, each, in the…

— Henry James

“That was originally what I had loved him for: that at a period when our native land was nude and crude and…

— Henry James

“To believe in a child is to believe in the future. Through their aspirations they will save the world. With their combined…

— Henry James

“Mr. Morris's poem is ushered into the world with a very florid birthday speech from the pen of the author of the…

— Henry James

“You must come to Lockleigh again," said Miss Molyneux, very sweetly, to Isabel, ignoring this remark of Isabel's friend. Isabel looked into…

— Henry James

Instead of leading to the high places of happiness, from which the world would seem to lie below one, so that one…

— Henry James

I don’t think I pity her. She doesn’t strike me as a girl that suggests compassion. I think I envy her... I…

— Henry James

Life is, in fact, a battle. Evil is insolent and strong; beauty enchanting, but rare; goodness very apt to be weak; folly…

— Henry James

“I know at least what I am,' he simply went on; 'the other side of the medal's clear enough. I've not been…

— Henry James