Henry James: Thing

Henry James was American novelist, short story author, and literary critic. Explore interesting quotes on thing.
Henry James: 308   quotes 26   likes

“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.”

Overheard by his nephew, Billy James, in 1902; quoted in Leon Edel, Henry James: A Life, vol V: The Master 1901-1916 (1972).

“Though there are some disagreeable things in Venice there is nothing so disagreeable as the visitors.”

"Venice," The Century Magazine, vol. XXV (November 1882), reprinted in Portraits of Places (1883) and later in Italian Hours http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/8ihou10.txt (1909), ch. I: Venice, pt. II.

“So here it is at last, the distinguished thing!”

After suffering a stroke (1915-12-02), the first of several which led to his death, as recounted by Edith Wharton in A Backward Glance (1934), ch. 14: "He is said to have told his old friend Lady Prothero, when she saw him after the first stroke, that in the very act of falling (he was dressing at the time) he heard in the room a voice which was distinctly, it seemed, not his own, saying: 'So here it is at last, the distinguished thing!'".

“There are few things more exciting to me, in short, than a psychological reason.”

The Art of Fiction http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/artfiction.html (1884)

“When it's for each other that people give things up they don't miss them.”

Book VI, ch. III
The Ambassadors (1903)