The camera is just a machine, which records with impressive and as a rule very cruel faithfulness. James Agee More Quotes by James Agee More Quotes From James Agee In every child who is born, no matter what circumstances, and of no matter what parents, the potentiality of the human race is born again: and in him, too, once more, and of each of us, our terrific responsibility toward human life; toward the utmost idea of goodness, of the horror of terror, and of God. James Agee peacelifechildren You've got to bear it in mind that nobody that ever lived is specially privileged; the axe can fall at any moment, on any neck, without any warning or any regard for justice. You've got to keep your mind off pitying your own rotten luck and setting up any kind of a howl about it. You've got to remember that things as bad as this and a hell of a lot worse have happened to millions of people before and that they've come through it and that you will too. James Agee justicepeoplefall The mere attempt to examine my own confusion would consume volumes. James Agee confusingvolumeconfusion You've got to bear it in mind that nobody that ever lived is specially privileged; the axe can fall at any moment, on any neck, without any warning or any regard for justice. James Agee riskjusticefall And a human being whose life is nurtured in an advantage which has accrued from the disadvantage of other human beings, and who prefers that this should remain as it is, is a human being by definition only, having much more in common with the bedbug, the tapeworm, the cancer, and the scavengers of the deep sea. James Agee cancerdefinitionssea The artist's task is not to alter the world as the eye sees it into a world of aesthetic reality, but to perceive the aesthetic reality within the actual reality. (On photographs by Helen Levitt) James Agee eyeartistreality The goal is the same: life itself; and the price is the same; life itself. James Agee addictiongoallife You must be in tune with the times and prepared to break with tradition. James Agee preparationtunestime Some people get where they hope to in this world. Most of us don't. James Agee this-worldpeopleworld Isn’t every human being both a scientist and an artist; and in writing of human experience, isn’t there a good deal to be said for recognizing that fact and for using both methods? James Agee artistwritingfacts For in the immediate world, everything is to be discerned, for him who can discern it, and central and simply, without either dissection into science, or digestion into art, but with the whole of consciousness, seeking to perceive it as it stands: so that the aspect of a street in sunlight can roar in the heart of itself as a symphony, perhaps as no symphony can: and all of consciousness is shifted from the imagined, the revisive, to the effort to perceive simply the cruel radiation of what is. James Agee effortsymphonyart As small, quick, foolproof cameras became generally available, moreover, the camera has been used so much and so flabbily by so many people that it has acted as a sort of contraceptive on the ability to see. James Agee camerasusedpeople I know the most important faculty to develop is one for hard, continuous and varied work and living; but the difference between knowing this and doing anything consistent about it is often abysmal. James Agee differencesimportantknowing The camera seems to me, next to unassisted and weaponless consciousness, the central instrument of our time. James Agee nextcamerasconsciousness Seems as unfounded ... to say there isn't a God as to say there is. James Agee atheismseems And somewhat as in blind night, on a mild sea, a sailor may be made aware of an iceberg, fanged and mortal, bearing invisibly near, by the unwarned charm of its breath, nothingness now revealed itself: that permanent night upon which the stars in their expiring generations are less than the glinting of gnats, and nebulae, more trivial than winter breath; that darkness in which eternity lies bent and pale, a dead snake in a jar, and infinity is the sparkling of a wren blown out to sea; that inconceivable chasm of invulnerable silence in which cataclysms of galaxies rave mute as amber. James Agee starswinterlying Well, now, some people learn a little quicker than others. It's nice to learn fast but it's nice to take your time too. James Agee nicelittlespeople And no matter what, there's not one thing in this world *or* the next that we can do or hope or guess at or wish or pray that can change it or help it one iota. Because whatever is, is. That's all. And all there is now is to be ready for it, strong enough for it, whatever it may be. That's all. That's all that matters. It's all that matters because it's all that's possible. James Agee nextstrongwish A mother never realizes that her children are no longer children. James Agee mommotherchildren As a whole part of "psychological education" it needs to be remembered that a neurosis can be valuable; also that "adjustment" to a sick and insane environment is of itself not "health" but sickness and insanity. James Agee sickeducationinsanity
