Quotations by Henry James

HENRY JAMES, (1843 –1916), WAS A PROMINENT AMERICAN NOVELIST AND CRITIC.

 

 

 “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, The Middle Years

 

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.”

~ Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

 

“It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance, for our consideration and application of these things, and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.”

~ Henry James, Letter to H. G. Wells, [10 July 1915]

 

“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.”

~ Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

 

“She had an immense curiosity about life, and was constantly staring and wondering.”

~ Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

 

“Things are always different than what they might be...If you wait for them to change, you will never do anything.”

~ Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

 

“Sorrow comes in great waves—no one can know that better than you—but it rolls over us, and though it may almost smother us it leaves us on the spot, and we know that if it is strong we are stronger, inasmuch as it passes and we remain. It wears us, uses us, but we wear it and use it in return; and it is blind, whereas we after a manner see.”

~ Henry James, Letter to Grace Norton [July 28,1883]

 

“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.”

~ Henry James, Roderick Hudson

 

“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!”

~ Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

 

“Live all you can: it's a mistake not to. It doesn't matter what you do in particular, so long as you have had your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?”

~ Henry James, The Ambassadors

 

“Of course I was under the spell, and the wonderful part is that, even at the time, I perfectly knew I was. But I gave myself up to it; it was an antidote to any pain, and I had more pains than one.”

~ Henry James, The Turn of the Screw

 

“Of course I was under the spell, and the wonderful part is that, even at the time, I perfectly knew I was.”

~ Henry James, The Turn of the Screw

 

“You must save what you can of your life; you musn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part.”

~ Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

 

“Her reputation for reading a great deal hung about her like the cloudy envelope of a goddess in an epic.”

~ Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

 

“Life is, in fact, a battle. Evil is insolent and strong; beauty enchanting, but rare; goodness very apt to be weak; folly very apt to be defiant; wickedness to carry the day; imbeciles to be in great places, people of sense in small, and mankind generally unhappy. But the world as it stands is no narrow illusion, no phantasm, no evil dream of the night; we wake up to it, forever and ever; and we can neither forget it nor deny it nor dispense with it.”

~ Henry James, Theory of Fiction: 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.”
 

~ Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

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Tanvir Shameem

Tanvir Shameem is not the biggest fan of teaching, but he is doing his best to write on various topics of language and literature just to guide thousands of students and researchers across the globe. You can always find him experimenting with presentation, style and diction. He will contribute as long as time permits. You can find him on:

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