There’s no more usual basis of union than mutual misunderstanding.
HENRY JAMESThere’s no more usual basis of union than mutual misunderstanding.
HENRY JAMESLive all you can; it’s a mistake not to.
HENRY JAMESYoung men of this class never do anything for themselves that they can get other people to do for them, and it is the infatuation, the devotion, the superstition of others that keeps them going. These others in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred are women.
HENRY JAMESLife 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.
HENRY JAMESAmericans will eat garbage provided you sprinkle it liberally with ketchup.
HENRY JAMESYou wanted to look at life for yourself – but you were not allowed; you were punished for your wish.
HENRY JAMESI am incapable of telling you not to feel. Feel, feel, I say – feel for all you’re worth, and even if it half kills you, for that is the only way to live.
HENRY JAMESYou must save what you can of your life; you musn’t lose it all simply because you’ve lost a part.
HENRY JAMESShe feels in italics and thinks in CAPITALS.
HENRY JAMESLife is a predicament which precedes death.
HENRY JAMESIf I should certainly say to a novice, ‘Write from experience and experience only,’ I should feel that this was rather a tantalizing monition if I were not careful immediately to add, ‘Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost.’
HENRY JAMESThings are always different than what they might be…If you wait for them to change, you will never do anything.
HENRY JAMESMake the short story tremendously succinct – with a very short pulse or rhythm – and the closest selection of detail.
HENRY JAMESYou are good for nothing unless you are clever.
HENRY JAMESHowever British you may be, I am more British still.
HENRY JAMESI’ve always expected the worst, and it’s always worse than I expected.
HENRY JAMES