“ 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 (1881). copy citation
| Author | Henry James |
|---|---|
| Source | The Portrait of a Lady |
| Topic | youth ignorance judgement |
| Date | 1881 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2833/2833-h/2833-h.htm |
Context
“She proposed moreover, as well as expected, to cease feeling; she freely admitted that of old she had been a little mad, and now she pretended to be perfectly sane.
«I judge more than I used to,» she said to Isabel, «but it seems to me one has earned the right. One can't judge till one's forty; before that we're too eager, too hard, too cruel, and in addition much too ignorant. I'm sorry for you; it will be a long time before you're forty. But every gain's a loss of some kind; I often think that after forty one can't really feel. The freshness, the quickness have certainly gone.” source
«I judge more than I used to,» she said to Isabel, «but it seems to me one has earned the right. One can't judge till one's forty; before that we're too eager, too hard, too cruel, and in addition much too ignorant. I'm sorry for you; it will be a long time before you're forty. But every gain's a loss of some kind; I often think that after forty one can't really feel. The freshness, the quickness have certainly gone.” source
Meaning and analysis
