Henry James Quotes

200 quotes in 2169 categories

• An Englishman's never so natural as when he's holding his tongue. Englishman
• Until you try, you don't know what you can't do. Funny
• It is indeed immensely picturesque. I can fancy sitting all a summer's day watching its shadows shorten and lengthen again, and drawing a delicious contrast… All
• The "germ," wherever gathered, has ever been for me, "the germ of a story," and most of the stories strained to shape under my hand… Been
• His kiss was like white lightning, a flash that spread, and spread again, and stayed. Flash
• We must grant the artist his subject, his idea, his donn´e: our criticism is applied only to what he makes of it. Applied
• 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… America
• To treat a big subject in the intensely summarized fashion demanded by an evening's traffic of the stage when the evening, freely clipped at each… Big
• All intimacies are based on differences. All
• The artist beholds in nature more than she herself Nature is conscious of. Art
• To believe in a child is to believe in the Future. Believe
• Be generous, be delicate, and always pursue the prize. Always Pursue
• She is like a revolving lighthouse; pitch darkness alternating with a dazzling brilliancy! Alternating
• 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… Breathless
• Everything about Florence seems to be colored with a mild violet, like diluted wine. Colored
• Little by little, even with other cares, the slowly but surely working poison of the garden-mania begins to stir in my long-sluggish veins. Begins
• Experience is never limited, and it is never complete Complete
• It doesn't matter what you do in particular, so long as you have had your life. Inspirational
• It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance. Art
• Innocent and infinite are the pleasures of observation. Infinite

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