WIST

In the long run an opinion often borrows credit from the forbearance of its patrons.

Henry James (1843-1916) American writer
“Essays in Criticism by Matthew Arnold,” North American Review (Jul 1865)

It is, I think, an indisputable fact that Americans are, as Americans, the most self-conscious people in the world, and the most addicted to the belief that the other nations of the earth are in a conspiracy to undervalue them.

Henry James (1843-1916) American writer
Hawthorne, ch. 6 “England and Italy” (1879)

Live all you can — it’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven’t had that, what have you had?… What one loses one loses; make no mistake about that…The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have…. Live!

Henry James (1843-1916) American writer
The Ambassadors, Book 5, ch. 2 (1903)

The real offence, as she ultimately perceived, was her having a mind of her own at all. Her mind was to be his — attached to his own like a small garden-plot to a deer-park.

Henry James (1843-1916) American writer
The Portrait of a Lady, ch. 42 (1881)

Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.

Henry James (1843-1916) American writer
Comment to Willie James (nephew) (1902)