The only success worth one's powder was success in the line of one's idiosyncrasy... what was talent but the art of being completely whatever one happened to be? Henry James More Quotes by Henry James More Quotes From Henry James You think too much.' 'I suppose I do; but I can’t help it, my mind is so terribly active. When I give myself, I give myself. I pay the penalty in my headaches, my famous headaches--a perfect circlet of pain! But I carry it as a queen carries her crown. Henry James pain queens thinking When I am wicked I am in high spirits. Henry James wicked spirit England always seems to me like a man swimming with his clothes on his head. Henry James swimming clothes men I've always expected the worst, and it's always worse than I expected. Henry James worst expected Oxford lends sweetness to labour and dignity to leisure. Henry James leisure dignity oxford London is on the whole the most possible form of life. Henry James metropolis london form The deepest quality of a work of art will always be the quality of the mind of the producer...No good novel will ever proceed from a superficial mind. Henry James mind writing art We work in the dark -- we do what we can -- we give what we have. Henry James dark giving Money's a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet. Henry James charming money literature True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self; but the point is not only to get out - you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand. Henry James inner-peace self happiness It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature. Henry James historical literature history The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life. Henry James reason doe writing I don’t think I pity her. She doesn’t strike me as a girl that suggests compassion. I think I envy her... I don’t know whether she is a gifted being, but she is a clever girl, with a strong will and a high temper. She has no idea of being bored...Very pretty indeed; but I don’t insist upon that. It’s her general air of being someone in particular that strikes me. Henry James girl strong clever In a play, certainly, the subject is of more importance than in any other work of art. Infelicity, triviality, vagueness of subject, may be outweighed in a poem, a novel, or a picture, by charm of manner, by ingenuity of execution; but in a drama the subject is of the essence of the work-it is the work. If it is feeble, the work can have no force; if it is shapeless, the work must be amorphous. Henry James essence drama art I have in my own fashion learned the lesson that life is effort, unremittingly repeated. Henry James effort lessons fashion Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue. Henry James imperfection air kindness All intimacies are based on differences. Henry James intimacy marriage differences There are moods in which one feels the impulse to enter a tacit protest against too gross an appetite for pure aesthetics in this starving and sinning world. One turns half away, musingly, from certain beautiful useless things. Henry James useless-things beautiful beauty Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. Henry James coffee-and-tea tea-drinking life Everything about Florence seems to be colored with a mild violet, like diluted wine. Henry James florence wine violet
