Henry James was born 15 April 1843, and died 28 February 1916.
Henry James Quotes
- Life is a predicament which precedes death.
- 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.
- Do not mind anything that anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.
- 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.
- I don’t want everyone to like me; I should think less of myself if some people did.
- The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life.
- Ideas are, in truth, force.
- Make the short story tremendously succinct – with a very short pulse or rhythm – and the closest selection of detail – in other words summarise intensely and deeply and keep down the lateral development. It should be a little gem of bright, quick, vivid form.
- There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.
- I hold any writer sufficiently justified who is himself in love with his theme.
- It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.
- In art economy is always beauty.
- I intend to judge things for myself; to judge wrongly, I think, is more honourable than not to judge at all.
- Never say you know the last word about any human heart.
- One can’t judge till one’s forty; before that we’re too eager, too hard, too cruel, and in addition much too ignorant.
- She feels in italics and thinks in CAPITALS.
Henry James was an American-born British writer. He was regarded as one of the key figures of 19th century literary realism. James became one of his generation’s most well-known writers for such works as The Portrait of a Lady and The Turn of the Screw. James’ imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue and unreliable narrators in his own novels and tales brought a new depth and interest to realistic fiction, and foreshadowed the modernist work of the 20th century. After living in England for 40 years, James became a British subject in 1915.
Source for Image: National Portrait Gallery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_James_by_John_Singer_Sargent_cleaned.jpg
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