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Henry James quotes

English (31)

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“I don't want every one to like me; I should think less of myself if some people did.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“The more you know the more unhappy you are.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“Don't mind anything any one tells you about any one else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“I call people rich when they're able to meet the requirements of their imagination.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“Live all you can; it's a mistake not to.” Henry James, The Ambassadors
“Henrietta was a literary woman, and the great advantage of being a literary woman was that you could go everywhere and do everything.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“Her reputation of reading a great deal hung about her like the cloudy envelope of a goddess in an epic; it was supposed to engender difficult questions and to keep the conversation at a low temperature.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“If one's strong one loves only the more strongly.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“I'm afraid there are moments in life when even Schubert has nothing to say to us. We must admit, however, that they are our worst.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have.” Henry James, The Ambassadors
“There's no generosity without some sacrifice.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“One can't judge till one's forty; before that we're too eager, too hard, too cruel, and in addition much too ignorant.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“He's the victim of a critical age; he has ceased to believe in himself and he doesn't know what to believe in.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“I must say I think patriotism is like charity—it begins at home.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“You must save what you can of your life; you mustn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“if you've been hated you've also been loved.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“She had always been fond of history, and here was history in the stones of the street and the atoms of the sunshine.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“You wanted to look at life for yourself—but you were not allowed; you were punished for your wish. You were ground in the very mill of the conventional!” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“I never know what I mean in my telegrams—especially those I send from America. Clearness is too expensive.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“I never did anything in life to any one's imagination.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“But you must remember that justice to a lovely being is after all a florid sort of sentiment.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“her deepest enjoyment was to feel the continuity between the movements of her own soul and the agitations of the world.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“I always want to know the things one shouldn't do . . . So as to choose” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“The increasing seriousness of things, then that's the great opportunity of jokes.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“Sometimes she went so far as to wish that she might find herself some day in a difficult position, so that she should have the pleasure of being as heroic as the occasion demanded.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“There's no more usual basis of union than a mutual misunderstanding.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“Isabel’s written in a foreign tongue. I can’t make her out.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“It’s her general air of being some one in particular that strikes me.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“Her imagination was by habit ridiculously active; when the door was not open it jumped out of the window.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
“A swift carriage, of a dark night, rattling with four horses over roads that one can't see—that's my idea of happiness.” Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

Related topics

woman love self imagination judgement happiness life unhappiness mistake opinion strength youth seriousness knowledge freedom integrity understanding reading age wealth

Related sources

The Portrait of a Lady (29)
The Ambassadors (2)