Henry James Quotes

1843-1916, American Author
quotes
43
topics
12
Origin
What do these mean?
Topic
“Ideas are, in truth, force.”
MisattributedListed as misattributed to Henry James; no source in their known works. · evidenceIdeas
“Deep experience is never peaceful.”
Verifiedde Mauves, Galaxy Magazine (February/March 1874), ch. V, reprinted in A Passionate Pilgrim (1875) and later in The Madonna of the Future and Other Tales (1879) and the New York Edition of James' works, vol. 13 (1908) · evidenceExperience
“The time-honored bread-sauce of the happy ending.”
VerifiedTheatricals: Second Series (1895) · evidenceFiction
“I think patriotism is like charity -- it begins at home.”
Patriotism
“Cats and monkeys; monkeys and cats; all human life is there.”
VerifiedThe Madonna of the Future (1879) · evidenceAnimals
“To read between the lines was easier than to follow the text.”
Motives
“Money's a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet.”
Money
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
VerifiedHawthorne (1879) · evidenceLiterature
“Which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?”
Thoughts and Thinking
“In museums and palaces we are alternate radicals and conservatives.”
Museums and Galleries
“I hold any writer sufficiently justified who is himself in love with his theme.”
Verified"Venice," The Century Magazine, vol. XXV (November 1882), reprinted in Portraits of Places (1883) and later in Italian Hours (1909), ch: I: Venice, pt. I · evidenceWriters and Writing
“She had an unequalled gift... of squeezing big mistakes into small opportunities.”
Mistakes
“The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life.”
VerifiedVariant text: The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does compete with life. · evidenceFiction
“Don't mind anything anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.”
VerifiedThe Portrait of a Lady (1881) · evidenceJudgment and Judges
“Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.”
MisattributedNot by Henry James. Earliest known source: William James (the philosopher), 'Is Life Worth Living?' (1895). · evidenceLife and Living
“Though there are some disagreeable things in Venice there is nothing so disagreeable as the visitors.”
Verified"Venice," The Century Magazine, vol. XXV (November 1882), reprinted in Portraits of Places (1883) and later in Italian Hours (1909), ch. I: Venice, pt. II · evidenceTravel and Tourism
“What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?”
VerifiedThe Art of Fiction (1884) · evidenceCharacter
“A man who pretends to understand women is ad manners. For him to really to understand them is bad morals.”
Understanding
“The superiority of one man's opinion over another's is never so great as when the opinion is about a woman.”
VerifiedThe Tragic Muse (1890), ch. IX · evidenceMen and Women
“Of course you're always at liberty to judge the critic. Judge people as critics, however, and you'll condemn them all!”
Critics and Criticism
“Summer afternoon -- summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
Seasons
“Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.”
Kindness
“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 land.”
VerifiedSaid to Hamlin Garland in 1906 and quoted by Garland in Roadside Meetings (1930; reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, 2005, , ch. XXXVI: Henry James at Rye, p. 461 · evidenceExile
“Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.”
Tea
“It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.”
Arts and Artists
“The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.”
VerifiedThe Art of Fiction (1884) · evidenceBooks and Reading
“I am blackly bored when they are at large and at work; but somehow I am still more blackly bored when they are shut up in Holloway and we are deprived of them.”
Feminism