It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance. Henry James More Quotes by Henry James More Quotes From Henry James I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of an artistic process. Henry James creating-artartisticforce It exhibits the effort of an essentially prosaic mind to lift itself, by a prolonged muscular strain, into poetry. Henry James effortpoetrymind Which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? Henry James statureaddthinking People talk about the conscience, but it seems to me one must just bring it up to a certain point and leave it there. You can let your conscience alone if you're nice to the second housemaid. Henry James niceleave-me-alonepeople One might enumerate the items of high civilization, as it exists in other countries, which are absent from the texture of American life, until it should become a wonder to know what was left. Henry James texturecivilizationcountry It might seem that an egg which has succeeded in being fresh has done all that can reasonably be expected of it. Henry James eggscookingfood The advantage, the luxury, as well as the torment and responsibility of the novelist, is that there is no limit to what he may attempt as an executant - no limit to his possible experiments, efforts, discoveries, successes. Henry James luxuryresponsibilitydiscovery There are women who are for all your 'times of life.' They're the most wonderful sort. Henry James wonderful When you forget to eat, you know you're alive. Henry James ignorance-is-blissaliveforget The face of nature and civilization in this our country is to a certain point a very sufficient literary field. But it will yield its secrets only to a really grasping imagination. To write well and worthily of American things one need even more than elsewhere to be a master. Henry James yieldwritingcountry Every governmental institution has been a standing testimony to the harmonic destiny of society, a standing proof that the life of man is destined for peace and amity, instead of disorder and contention. Henry James proofdestinymen I hate American simplicity. I glory in the piling up of complications of every sort. If I could pronounce the name James in any different or more elaborate way I should be in favor of doing it. Henry James usahatenames People can be in general pretty well trusted, of course--with the clock of their freedom ticking as loud as it seems to do here--to keep an eye on the fleeting hour. Henry James freedomeyepeople To kill a human being is, after all, the least injury you can do him. Henry James injuryhumansliterature There are two kinds of taste, the taste for emotions of surprise and the taste for emotions of recognition. Henry James recognitiontastetwo London doesn't love the latent or the lurking, has neither time, nor taste, nor sense for anything less discernible than the red flag in front of the steam-roller. It wants cash over the counter and letters ten feet high. Henry James red-flagscashfeet Art is nothing more than the shadow of humanity. Henry James inspirational-runningphilosophyart Experience was to be taken as showing that one might get a five-pound note as one got a light for a cigarette; but one had to check the friendly impulse to ask for it in the same way. Henry James lighttakenfriendly Make (the reader) think the evil, make him think it for himself, and you are released from weak specifications. My values are positively all blanks, save so far as an excited horror, a promoted pity, a created expertness... proceed to read into them more or less fantastic figures. Henry James horrorevilthinking No, no—there are depths, depths! The more I go over it, the more I see in it, and the more I see in it, the more I fear. I don’t know what I don’t see—what I don’t fear! Henry James over-itdepthknows
