Henry James: Trending quotes

“Love has nothing to do with good reasons.”

“You must save what you can of your life; you musn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part.”

“She had an immense curiosity about life, and was constantly staring and wondering.”

“Don't mind anything anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.”

“If one is strong, one loves the more strongly.”

“She ordered a cup of tea, which proved excessively bad, and this gave her a sense that she was suffering in a romantic cause.”

“do you think it is
better to be clever than to be good?”
“Good for what?” asked the Doctor. “You are good for
nothing unless you are clever.”

“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.”

“Sorrow comes in great waves… but rolls over us, and though it may almost smother us, it leaves us. And we know that if it is strong, we are stronger, inasmuch as it passes and we remain.”

“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.”

“There were several ways of understanding her: there was what she said, and there was what she meant, and there was something between the two, that was neither.”

“Her imagination was by habit ridiculously active; when the door was not open it jumped out the window.”

“He is outside of everything, and an alien everywhere. He is an aesthetic solitary. His beautiful, light imagination is the wing that on the autumn evening just brushes the dusky window.”

“Besides, I try to judge things for myself; to judge wrong, I think, is more honourable than not to judge at all.”

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.”

“She feels in italics and thinks in CAPITALS.”

“Don’t underestimate the value of irony—it is extremely valuable.”

“Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”

“I'm glad you like adverbs — I adore them; they are the only qualifications I really much respect.”