The Best Henry James quotes

I have only to let myself go! So I have said all my life, yet I have never fully done it. — Henry James

London is on the whole the most possible form of life. — Henry James

It doesn’t so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. — Henry James

There are three things that are important in human life. the first is to be kind. the second is to be kind. the third is to be kind. — Henry James

Life is a predicament which precedes death. — Henry James

You must save what you can of your life; you musn’t lose it all simply because you’ve lost a part. — Henry James

We must for dear life make our own counter–realities. — Henry James

She had an immense curiosity about life, and was constantly staring and wondering. — Henry James

The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life. — Henry James

Art without life is a poor affair. — Henry James

There are women who are for all your ‘times of life.’ They’re the most wonderful sort. — Henry James

Cats and monkeys; monkeys and Cats; all human life is there. — Henry James

It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined. — Henry James

It is no wonder he wins every game. He has never done a thing in his life exept play games — Henry James

There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. — Henry James

I have in my own fashion learned the lesson that life is effort, unremittingly repeated. — Henry James

If I were to live my life over again, I would be an American. I would steep myself in America, I would know no other land. — Henry James

It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance. — Henry James

Keep making the movements of life. — Henry James

She had a certain way of looking at life which he took as a personal offense. — Henry James

It takes an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition. — Henry James

The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have. — Henry James

When I am wicked I am in high spirits. — Henry James

She feels in italics and thinks in CAPITALS. — Henry James

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

I don’t care anything about reasons, but I know what I like. — Henry James

Deep experience is never peaceful. — Henry James

Love has nothing to do with good reasons. — Henry James

I could come back to America..to die..but never, never to live. — Henry James

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

I intend to judge things for myself; to judge wrongly, I think, is more honorable than not to judge at all. — Henry James

Do not mind anything that anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself. — Henry James

The power to guess the unseen from the seen, to trace the implications of things, to judge the whole piece by the pattern . . . this cluster of gifts may almost be said to constitute experience. — Henry James

I’ve always expected the worst, and it’s always worse than I expected. — Henry James

To believe in a child is to believe in the Future. — Henry James

Don’t underestimate the value of irony–it is extremely valuable. — Henry James

Live as you like best, and your character will take care of itself. Most things are good for you; the exceptions are very rare. — Henry James

What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character? — Henry James

What is either a picture or a novel that is not character? — Henry James

Don’t try so much to form your character–it’s like trying to pull open a tight, tender young rose. Live as you like best and your character will take care of itself. — Henry James

She had her own way of doing all that she did, and this is the simplest description of a character which, although by no means without liberal motions, rarely succeeded in giving an impression of suavity. — Henry James

Of course you’re always at liberty to judge the critic. Judge people as critics, however, and you’ll condemn them all! — Henry James

People can be in general pretty well trusted, of course––with the clock of their freedom ticking as loud as it seems to do here––to keep an eye on the fleeting hour. — Henry James

We are divided of course between liking to feel the past strange and liking to feel it familiar. — Henry James

She was a woman who, between courses, could be graceful with her elbows on the table. — Henry James

Every good story is of course both a picture and an idea, and the more they are interfused the better. — Henry James

Of course what he most intensely dreams of is being taken out on walks, and the more you are able to indulge him the more will he adore you and the more all the latent beauty of his nature will come out. — Henry James

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