--- title: "2 Existence Human Quotes By James Agee" description: "2 Existence Human quotes by James Agee. Plus more from James Agee and more Existence Human sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/471/james-agee-9167_dreams_for-one-who-sets-himself-to-look-at-all_944459.jpg" --- > [“For one who sets himself to look at all earnestly, at all in purpose toward truth, into the living eyes of a human life: what is it he there beholds that so freezes and abashes his ambitious heart? What is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/for-one-who-sets-himself-to-look-at-all-earnestly-at-all-in-purpose/) [james agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/471/james-agee-9167_dreams_for-one-who-sets-himself-to-look-at-all_944459.jpg) > [“A house of simple people which stands empty and silent in the vast Southern country morning sunlight, and everything which on this morning in eternal space it by chance contains, all thus left open and defenseless to a reverent and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/a-house-of-simple-people-which-stands-empty-and-silent-in-the-vast/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b81/james-agee-9167_human-consciousness_a-house-of-simple-people-which-stands-em_3025072.jpg) ## More by James Agee > [By some chance, here they are, all on this earth; and who shall ever tell the sorrow of being on this earth, lying, on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/by-some-chance-here-they-are-all-on-this-earth-and-who-shall-ever/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [The camera seems to me, next to unassisted and weaponless consciousness, the central instrument of our time.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/the-camera-seems-to-me-next-to-unassisted-and-weaponless/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [“Yes, for every child, rich or poor, there's a time of running through a dark place; and there's no word for a child's fear,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/yes-for-every-child-rich-or-poor-there-s-a-time-of-running-through-a/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [“Kate, the mother of thirteen, is forty-nine; delicately made; her skin creamlike where the weather has not got at it. She is smaller than…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/kate-the-mother-of-thirteen-is-forty-nine-delicately-made-her-skin/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [ “The passion for vengeance is a terrifyingly strong one, very easily and probably inevitably wrought up by such evidence \[of atrocities\], even at our… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/the-passion-for-vengeance-is-a-terrifyingly-strong-one-very-easily/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [It's kind of a test, Mary, and it's the only kind that amounts to anything. When something rotten like this happens, then you have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/it-s-kind-of-a-test-mary-and-it-s-the-only-kind-that-amounts-to/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [The mere attempt to examine my own confusion would consume volumes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/the-mere-attempt-to-examine-my-own-confusion-would-consume-volumes/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [It is a peculiar part of the good photographer's adventure to know where luck is most likely to lie in the stream, to hook…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/it-is-a-peculiar-part-of-the-good-photographer-s-adventure-to-know/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [“God is not here, Hannah said to herself; and made a small cross upon her breastbone, against her blasphemy.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/god-is-not-here-hannah-said-to-herself-and-made-a-small-cross-upon/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [Well, now, some people learn a little quicker than others. It's nice to learn fast but it's nice to take your time too.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/well-now-some-people-learn-a-little-quicker-than-others-it-s-nice-to/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [The artist's task is not to alter the world as the eye sees it into a world of aesthetic reality, but to perceive the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/the-artist-s-task-is-not-to-alter-the-world-as-the-eye-sees-it-into-a/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [Understanding, and action proceeding from understanding and guided by it, is one weapon against the world's bombardment, the one medicine, the one instrument by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/understanding-and-action-proceeding-from-understanding-and-guided-by/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [This continent, an open palm spread frank before the sky.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/this-continent-an-open-palm-spread-frank-before-the-sky/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [You've got to bear it in mind that nobody that ever lived is specially privileged; the axe can fall at any moment, on any…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/you-ve-got-to-bear-it-in-mind-that-nobody-that-ever-lived-is/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) > [He used this great, sad, motionless face to suggest various related things: a one-track mind near the track's end of pure insanity; mulish imperturbability…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/he-used-this-great-sad-motionless-face-to-suggest-various-related/) [James Agee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-agee/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existence-human/james-agee/#itemlist", "name": "2 Existence Human Quotes By James Agee", "numberOfItems": 2, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“For one who sets himself to look at all earnestly, at all in purpose toward truth, into the living eyes of a human life: what is it he there beholds that so freezes and abashes his ambitious heart? What is it, profound behind the outward windows of each one of you, beneath touch even of your own suspecting, drawn tightly back at bay against the backward wall and blackness of its prison cave, so that the eyes alone shine of their own angry glory, but the eyes of a trapped wild animal, or of a furious angel nailed to the ground by his wings, or however else one may faintly designate the human 'soul,' that which is angry, that which is wild, that which is untamable, that which is healthful and holy, that which is competent of all advantaging within hope of human dream, that which most marvelous and most precious to our knowledge and most extremely advanced upon futurity of all flowerings within the scope of creation is of all these the least destructible, the least corruptible, the most defenseless, the most easily and multitudinously wounded, frustrated, prisoned, and nailed into a cheating of itself: so situated in the universe that those three hours upon the cross are but a noble and too trivial an emblem how in each individual among most of the two billion now alive and in each successive instant of the existence of each existence not only human being but in him the tallest and most sanguine hope of godhead is in a billionate choiring and drone of pain of generations upon generations unceasingly crucified and is bringing forth crucifixions into their necessities and is each in the most casual of his life so measurelessly discredited, harmed, insulted, poisoned, cheated, as not all the wrath, compassion, intelligence, power of rectification in all the reach of the future shall in the least expiate or make one ounce more light: how, looking thus into your eyes and seeing thus, how each of you is a creature which has never in all time existed before and which shall never in all time exist again and which is not quite like any other and which has the grand stature and natural warmth of every other and whose existence is all measured upon a still mad and incurable time; how am I to speak of you as 'tenant' 'farmers,' as 'representatives' of your 'class,' as social integers in a criminal economy, or as individuals, fathers, wives, sons, daughters, and as my friends and as I 'know' you?”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "James Agee" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-agee/for-one-who-sets-himself-to-look-at-all-earnestly-at-all-in-purpose/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/471/james-agee-9167_dreams_for-one-who-sets-himself-to-look-at-all_944459.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/471/james-agee-9167_dreams_for-one-who-sets-himself-to-look-at-all_944459.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/471/james-agee-9167_dreams_for-one-who-sets-himself-to-look-at-all_944459.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“For one who sets himself to look at all earnestly, at all in purpose toward truth, into the living eyes of a…” — james agee", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“A house of simple people which stands empty and silent in the vast Southern country morning sunlight, and everything which on this morning in eternal space it by chance contains, all thus left open and defenseless to a reverent and cold-laboring spy, shines quietly forth such grandeur, such sorrowful holiness of its exactitudes in existence, as no human consciousness shall ever rightly perceive, far less impart to another: that there can be more beauty and more deep wonder in the standings and spacings of mute furnishings on a bare floor between the squaring bourns of walls than in any music ever made: that this square home, as it stands in unshadowed earth between the winding years of heaven, is, not to me but of itself, one among the serene and final, uncapturable beauties of existence; 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