“Most English talk is a quadrille in a sentry-box.”

—  Henry James, book The Awkward Age

Said by the Duchess in Book V, ch. XIX.
The Awkward Age (1899)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Most English talk is a quadrille in a sentry-box." by Henry James?
Henry James photo
Henry James154
American novelist, short story author, and literary critic 1843–1916

Related quotes

Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo

“They are born, put in a box; they go home to live in a box; they study by ticking boxes; they go to what is called “work” in a box, where they sit in their cubicle box; they drive to the grocery store in a box to buy food in a box; they talk about thinking “outside the box”; and when they die they are put in a box.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb book The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 31

Edie Brickell photo

“Philosophy, is the talk on a cereal box.
Religion, is a smile on a dog.”

Edie Brickell (1966) singer from the United States

"What I Am"
Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars (1988)

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston photo

“I will not talk of non-intervention, for it is not an English word.”

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) British politician

When an MP sought to correct Palmerston when he said &quot;non-interference&quot; instead of &quot;non-intervention&quot; in the House of Commons http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1832/aug/02/germany-protocol-of-the-diet (2 August 1832) <br class="br">1830s

Saki photo

“I love Americans, but not when they try to talk French. What a blessing it is that they never try to talk English.”

Saki The Chronicles of Clovis

"Adrian"
The Chronicles of Clovis (1911)

“The peculiar foreign superstition that the English do not like love, the evidence being that they do not talk about it.”

V.S. Pritchett (1900–1997) British writer and critic

Source: London Perceived (1962), Ch. 1, p. 14

“The most original novelist now writing in English.”

Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884–1969) English writer

V. S. Pritchett, quoted in Time, April 4, 1955. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,866174-2,00.html. <br class="br">Criticism

Gore Vidal photo

“Class is the most difficult subject for American writers to deal with as it is the most difficult for the English to avoid.”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

"Dawn Powell: The American Writer" (1987)
1980s, At Home (1988)

Arthur Waley photo

“When translating prose dialogue one ought to make the characters say things that people talking English could conceivably say. One ought to hear them talking, just as a novelist hears his characters talk.”

Arthur Waley (1889–1966) British academic

"Notes on Translation", in The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 202, No. 5 (November 1958), p. 109

Dorothy Parker photo

“The two most beautiful words in the English language are 'cheque enclosed.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Related topics