Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM15 April 1843 – 28 February 1916) was an American-born writer. He is regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth15 April 1843
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
men moral manners
A man who pretends to understand women is bad manners. For him to really to understand them is bad morals.
book artist pages
The artist is present in every page of every book from which he sought so assiduously to eliminate himself.
wish sole posts
My sole wish is to frustrate as utterly as possible the post-mortem exploiter.
lying judging feelings
Instead of leading to the high places of happiness, from which the world would seem to lie below one, so that one could look down with a sense of exaltation and advantage, and judge and choose and pity, it led rather downward and earthward, into realms of restriction and depression, where the sound of other lives, easier and freer, was heard as from above, and served to deepen the feeling of failure.
acceptance thinking self
It is, I think, an indisputable fact that Americans are, as Americans, the most self-conscious people in the world, and the most addicted to the belief that the other nations of the earth are in a conspiracy to under value them.
ambition artist essence
If the artist is necessarily sensitive, does that sensitiveness form in its essence a state constantly liable to shade off into the morbid? Does this liability, moreover, increase in proportion as the effort is great and the ambition intense?
responsibility fate fighting
It's a complex fate, being an American, and one of the responsibilities it entails is fighting against a superstitious valuation of Europe.
art criticism world
Criticism talks a good deal of nonsense, but even its nonsense is a useful force. It keeps the question of art before the world, insists upon its importance.
two taste recognition
There are two kinds of taste, the taste for emotions of surprise and the taste for emotions of recognition.
rome branches might
All roads lead to Rome, and there were times when it might have struck us that almost every branch of study or subject of conversation skirted forbidden ground.
love writing literature
I hold any writer sufficiently justified who is himself in love with his theme.
museums palaces radical
In museums and palaces we are alternate radicals and conservatives.
birthday regret thinking
I think I don't regret a single 'excess' of my responsive youth - I only regret, in my chilled age, certain occasions and possibilities I didn't embrace.
men judging literature
The superiority of one man's opinion over another's is never so great as when the opinion is about a woman.