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There were several ways of understanding her: there was what she said, and there was what she meant, and there was something between the two, that was neither.

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
Oneself
Meant
Neither
Ways
Understanding
Two
Something
Way
Several

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Always keep a window in the attic open not just cracked: open.
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In the long run an opinion often borrows credit from the forbearance of its patrons.
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We trust to novels to train us in the practice of great indignations and great generosity.
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Cats and monkeys monkeys and cats all human life is there.
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We work in the dark - we do what we can - we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.
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Autobiography may be the preeminent kind of American expression.
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My sole wish is to frustrate as utterly as possible the post-mortem exploiter.
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The faculty of attention has utterly vanished from the Anglo-Saxon mind, extinguished at its source by the big bayad?re of journalism, of the newspaper and the picture magazine which keeps screaming, Look at me. Illustrations, loud simplifications... bill poster advertising ? only these stand a chance.
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A tradition is kept alive only by something being added to it.
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It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance.
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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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...and the great advantage of being a literary woman, was that you could go everywhere and do everything.
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..her smile, which was her pretty feature, was never so pretty as when her sprightly phrase had a scratch lurking in it.
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I call people rich when they're able to meet the requirements of their imagination.
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Everything about Florence seems to be colored with a mild violet, like diluted wine.
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To kill a human being is, after all, the least injury you can do him.
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To believe in a child is to believe in the future. Through their aspirations they will save the world. With their combined knowledge the turbulent seas of hate and injustice will be calmed.
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I mean that everything this afternoon has been too beautiful, and that perhaps everything together will never be so right again. I'm very glad therefore you've been a part of it.
Henry James
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To read between the lines was easier than to follow the text.
Henry James
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I am incapable of telling you not to feel. Feel, feel, I say - feel for all you're worth, and even if it half kills you, for that is the only way to live.
Henry James