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There are two kinds of taste, the taste for emotions of surprise and the taste for emotions of recognition.

Henry James

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Henry James
Age: 73 †
Born: 1843
Born: January 1
Died: 1916
Died: January 1
Contributing Editor
Literary Critic
Novelist
Playwright
Poet Lawyer
Screenwriter
Short Story Writer
Writer
New York City
New York
Henricus James
Surprise
Taste
Emotion
Two
Kind
Recognition
Emotions
Kinds

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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!
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To live in the world of creation-to get into it and stay in it-to frequent it and haunt it...to think intently and fruitfully, to woo combinations and inspirations into being by a depth and continuity of attention and meditation-this is the only thing.
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It had been agreed between them that lighted candles at wayside inns, in strange countries amid mountain scenery, gave the evening meal a peculiar poetry.
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I intend to judge things for myself to judge wrongly, I think, is more honorable than not to judge at all.
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It exhibits the effort of an essentially prosaic mind to lift itself, by a prolonged muscular strain, into poetry.
Henry James
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In the long run an opinion often borrows credit from the forbearance of its patrons.
Henry James
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She had an immense curiosity about life, and was constantly staring and wondering.
Henry James
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The artist is present in every page of every book from which he sought so assiduously to eliminate himself.
Henry James
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Americans will eat garbage provided you sprinkle it liberally with ketchup.
Henry James
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Oxford lends sweetness to labour and dignity to leisure.
Henry James
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It takes an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition.
Henry James
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Art without life is a poor affair.
Henry James
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Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost!
Henry James
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She feels in italics and thinks in CAPITALS.
Henry James
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Art is a point of view, and a genius way of looking at things.
Henry James
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It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance.
Henry James
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I hold any writer sufficiently justified who is himself in love with his theme.
Henry James
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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 under value them.
Henry James
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An Englishman's never so natural as when he's holding his tongue.
Henry James
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If I should certainly say to a novice, 'Write from experience and experience only,' I should feel that this was rather a tantalizing monition if I were not careful immediately to add, 'Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost.'
Henry James