one’s right was always made of the wrong of some one else.
 Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (1881). copy citation

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Author Henry James
Source The Portrait of a Lady
Topic wrong right
Date 1881
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2834/2834-h/2834-h.htm

Context

“She tasted of the sweets of this preference, and they made her conscious, almost with awe, of the invidious and remorseless tide of the charmed and possessed condition, great as was the traditional honour and imputed virtue of being in love. It was the tragic part of happiness; one’s right was always made of the wrong of some one else. The elation of success, which surely now flamed high in Osmond, emitted meanwhile very little smoke for so brilliant a blaze. Contentment, on his part, took no vulgar form; excitement, in the most self-conscious of men, was a kind of ecstasy of self-control.” source