American - Writer | April 15, 1843 - February 28, 1916
One might enumerate the items of high civilization, as it exists in other countries, which are absent from the texture of American life, until it should become a wonder to know what was left.
Henry James
LifeAmericanWonderKnowBecome
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.
WorkPassionArtRestMadnessDoubt
To kill a human being is, after all, the least injury you can do him.
YouHumanHimHuman BeingInjury
Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what have you had?
LifeLiveMistakeLongYouMatter
Money's a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet.
MoneyMeetFollowCharmingThing
The face of nature and civilization in this our country is to a certain point a very sufficient literary field. But it will yield its secrets only to a really grasping imagination. To write well and worthily of American things one need even more than elsewhere to be a master.
NatureImaginationFaceAmerican
People talk about the conscience, but it seems to me one must just bring it up to a certain point and leave it there. You can let your conscience alone if you're nice to the second housemaid.
AlonePeopleMeYouNiceTalk
The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life.
LifeReasonExistenceOnlyAttempt
Though there are some disagreeable things in Venice there is nothing so disagreeable as the visitors.
NothingVeniceThingsThoughSome
Ideas are, in truth, force.
TruthIdeasForce
The superiority of one man's opinion over another's is never so great as when the opinion is about a woman.
GreatWomanManOpinionNeverOver
I hold any writer sufficiently justified who is himself in love with his theme.
LoveThemeHoldWhoWriterHimself
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Henry James quotes