WIST Quotations

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

Dave — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:00:07 +0000

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)

James, Henry -- “Robert Louis Stevenson,” Century Magazine (April 1888)

Dave — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:55:32 +0000

A tradition is kept alive only by something being added to it.

Henry James (1843-1916) American writer
“Robert Louis Stevenson,” Century Magazine (April 1888)

James, Henry -- “The Art of Fiction,” Longman’s Magazine (4 Sep 1884)

Dave — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:25:41 +0000

The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.

Henry James (1843-1916) American writer
“The Art of Fiction,” Longman’s Magazine (4 Sep 1884)
(Source)

James, Henry -- “The Art of Fiction,” Longman’s Magazine (4 Sep 1884)

Dave — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 13:28:45 +0000

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 (1843-1916) American writer
“The Art of Fiction,” Longman’s Magazine (4 Sep 1884)
(Source)

James, Henry -- “The Art of Fiction,” Longman’s Magazine (4 Sep 1884)

Dave — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 12:30:22 +0000

What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?

Henry James (1843-1916) American writer
“The Art of Fiction,” Longman’s Magazine (4 Sep 1884)
(Source)

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

Dave — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:46:58 +0000

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)

James, Henry -- The Ambassadors, Book 5, ch. 2 (1903)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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)

James, Henry -- The Awkward Age, Book 6, ch. 3 [Mrs. Brookenham] (1899)

Dave — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:02:59 +0000

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 (1843-1916) American writer
The Awkward Age, Book 6, ch. 3 [Mrs. Brookenham] (1899)
(Source)

James, Henry -- The Portrait of a Lady, ch. 42 (1881)

Dave — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:43:40 +0000

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)

James, Henry -- Comment to Willie James (nephew) (1902)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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)

James, Henry -- Essay (1874-04), “Iwan Turgéniew,” sec. 3, North American Review, Vol. 98, Art. 4

Dave — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 22:00:54 +0000

The world as it stands is no illusion, no phantasm, no evil dream of a night; we wake up to it again for ever and ever; we can neither forget it nor deny it nor dispense with it.

Henry James (1843-1916) American writer
Essay (1874-04), “Iwan Turgéniew,” sec. 3, North American Review, Vol. 98, Art. 4
(Source)

Reviewing Ivan Turgenev's Frühlingsfluthen and Ein König Lear des Dorfes (1873). Collected in French Poets and Novelists, "Ivan Turgénieff," sec. 3 (1878)

James, Henry -- Letter to H.G. Wells (10 July 1915)

Dave — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:30:06 +0000

It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance, for our consideration and application of these things, and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.

Henry James (1843-1916) American writer
Letter to H.G. Wells (10 July 1915)

James, Henry -- Letter to Hugh Walpole (21 Aug 1913)

Dave — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 22:53:38 +0000

I think I don’t regret a single “excess” of my responsive youth — I only regret, in my chilled age, certain occasions and possibilities I didn’t embrace.

Henry James (1843-1916) American writer
Letter to Hugh Walpole (21 Aug 1913)