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We work in the dark -- we do what we can -- we give what we have.

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
Dark
Give
Giving
Work

More quotes by Henry James

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A man who pretends to understand women is bad manners. For him to really to understand them is bad morals.
Henry James
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There are women who are for all your 'times of life.' They're the most wonderful sort.
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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.
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Art is nothing more than the shadow of humanity.
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...and the great advantage of being a literary woman, was that you could go everywhere and do everything.
Henry James
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Her memory's your love. You want no other.
Henry James
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It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.
Henry James
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Little by little, even with other cares, the slowly but surely working poison of the garden-mania begins to stir in my long-sluggish veins.
Henry James
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You are good for nothing unless you are clever.
Henry James
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Though there are some disagreeable things in Venice there is nothing so disagreeable as the visitors.
Henry James
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Adjectives are the sugar of literature and adverbs the salt.
Henry James
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The effort really to see and really to represent is no idle business in face of the constant force that makes for muddlement. The great thing is indeed that the muddled state too is one of the very sharpest of the realities, that it also has color and form and character, has often in fact a broad and rich comicality.
Henry James
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Women never dine alone. When they dine alone they don't dine.
Henry James
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To read between the lines was easier than to follow the text.
Henry James
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God's creature is one. He makes man, not men. His true creature is unitary and infinite, revealing himself, indeed, in every finite form, but compromised by none.
Henry James
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You wanted to look at life for yourself - but you were not allowed you were punished for your wish. You were ground in the very mill of the conventional.
Henry James
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If one is strong, one loves the more strongly.
Henry James
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One can't judge till one's forty before that we're too eager, too hard, too cruel, and in addition much too ignorant.
Henry James
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A solitary maple on a woodside flames in single scarlet, recalls nothing so much as the daughter of a noble house dressed for a fancy ball, with the whole family gathered around to admire her before she goes.
Henry James
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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.
Henry James