Art is nothing more than the shadow of humanity.
HENRY JAMESArt is nothing more than the shadow of humanity.
HENRY JAMESTo take what there is in life and use it, without waiting forever in vain for the preconceived, to dig deep into the actual and get something out of that; this, doubtless, is the right way to live.
HENRY JAMESDon’t pass it by – the immediate, the real, the ours, the yours, the novelist’s that it waits for.
HENRY JAMESShe had an unequalled gift, especially pen in hand, of squeezing big mistakes into small opportunities.
HENRY JAMESI think patriotism is like charity — it begins at home.
HENRY JAMESThings are always different from what they might be.
HENRY JAMESInnocent and infinite are the pleasures of observation.
HENRY JAMESI mean that everything this afternoon has been too beautiful, and that perhaps everything together will never be so right again. I’m very glad therefore you’ve been a part of it.
HENRY JAMESif you are going to be pushed you had better jump
HENRY JAMESDon’t underestimate the value of irony-it is extremely valuable.
HENRY JAMESThe power to guess the unseen from the seen, to trace the implications of things, to judge the whole piece by the pattern . . . this cluster of gifts may almost be said to constitute experience.
HENRY JAMESOne can’t judge till one’s forty; before that we’re too eager, too hard, too cruel, and in addition much too ignorant.
HENRY JAMESWe care what happens to people only in proportion as we know what people are.
HENRY JAMESThere’s no more usual basis of union than mutual misunderstanding.
HENRY JAMESUnder certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.
HENRY JAMESDon’t try so much to form your character – it’s like trying to pull open a tight, tender young rose.
HENRY JAMES