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The only success worth one's powder was success in the line of one's idiosyncrasy... what was talent but the art of being completely whatever one happened to be?

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
Art
Line
Worth
Talent
Lines
Idiosyncrasy
Happened
Idiosyncrasies
Literature
Powder
Whatever
Congratulations
Success
Completely

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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.
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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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The germ, wherever gathered, has ever been for me, the germ of a story, and most of the stories strained to shape under my hand have sprung from a single small seed, a seed as remote and windblown as a casual hint.
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In the long run an opinion often borrows credit from the forbearance of its patrons.
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Experience is never limited, and it is never complete
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I'm yours for ever--for ever and ever. Here I stand I'm as firm as a rock. If you'll only trust me, how little you'll be disappointed. Be mine as I am yours.
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Her imagination was by habit ridiculously active when the door was not open it jumped out the window.
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do you think it is better to be clever than to be good?” “Good for what?” asked the Doctor. “You are good for nothing unless you are clever.
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Deep experience is never peaceful.
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A man who pretends to understand women is bad manners. For him to really to understand them is bad morals.
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She had an immense curiosity about life, and was constantly staring and wondering.
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I call people rich when they're able to meet the requirements of their imagination.
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Things are always different from what they might be.
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Art without life is a poor affair.
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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.
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A tradition is kept alive only by something being added to it.
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Always keep a window in the attic open not just cracked: open.
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It's never permitted to be surprised at the aberrations of born fools.
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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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Novelist-Citizen of Two Countries Interpreter of his Generation on both Sides of the Sea.
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