The collection / 112 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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01Undated

I take up my own pen again - the pen of all my old unforgettable efforts and sacred struggles. To myself - today - I need say no more. Large and full and high the future still opens. It is now indeed that I may do the work of my life. And I will.

Henry James / quote

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02Undated

There's no more usual basis of union than mutual misunderstanding.

Henry James / quote

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03Undated

I should think that to hear such lovely music as that would really make him feel better."The lady gave a discriminating smile. “I am afraid there are moments in life when even Beethoven has nothing to say to us. We must admit, however, that they are our worst moments.

Henry James / quote

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04Undated

Take the word for it of a man who has made his way inch by inch, and does not believe that we'll wake up to find our work done because we've lain all night a-dreaming of it; anything worth doing is devilish hard to do!

Henry James / quote

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05Undated

Our relation, all round, exists--it's a reality, and a very good one; we're mixed up, so to speak, and it's too late to change it. We must live IN it and with it

Henry James / quote

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06Undated

I don't need the aid of a clever man to teach me how to live. I can find it out for myself.

Henry James / quote

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07Undated

She’s the latest freshest fruit of our great American evolution. She’s the self-made girl!(…)Well, to begin with, the self-made girl’s a new feature. That, however, you know. In the second place she isn’t self-made at all. We all help to make her, we take such an interest in her.

Henry James / quote

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08Undated

What we often take to be the new is simply the old under some novel form.

Henry James / quote

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09Undated

Let us be vulgar and have some fun, let us invite the President.

Henry James / quote

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10Undated

Try to be someone upon whom nothing is lost!

Henry James / quote

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11Undated

I have never allowed a gentleman to dictate to me, or to interfere with anything I do.

Henry James / quote

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12Undated

They had from an early hour made up their mind that society was, luckily, unintelligent, and the margin allowed them by this had fairly become one of their commonplaces.

Henry James / quote

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13Undated

It’s very true; there are many more iron pots certainly than porcelain. But you may depend on it that every one bears some mark; even the hardest iron pots have a little bruise, a little hole somewhere. I flatter myself that I’m rather stout, but if I must tell you the truth I’ve beenshockingly chipped and cracked. I do very well for service yet, because I’ve been cleverly mended; and I try to remain in the cupboard—the quiet, dusky cupboard where there’s an odour of stale spices—as much as I can. Butwhen I’ve to come out and into a strong light—then, my dear, I’m a horror!

Henry James / quote

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14Undated

You were reserved for my future

Henry James / quote

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15Undated

The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.

Henry James / quote

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16Undated

There are two kinds of taste in the appreciation of imaginative literature: the taste for emotions of surprise and the taste for emotions of recognition.

Henry James / quote

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17Undated

Henry James / quote

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18Undated

He was a dim secondary social success -- and all with people who had truly not an idea of him. It was all mere surface sound, this murmur of their welcome, this popping of their corks -- just as his gestures of response were the extravagant shadows, emphatic in proportion as they meant little, of some game of 'ombres chinoises' [French: "shadow play"].

Henry James / quote

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19Undated

The young girl inspected her flounces and smoothed her ribbons again; and Winterbourne presently risked an observation upon the beauty of the view. He was ceasing to be embarrassed, for he had begun to perceive that she was not in the least embarrassed herself.

Henry James / quote

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20Undated

I never did anything in life to anyone's imagination.

Henry James / quote

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21Undated

Still, who could say what men ever were looking for? They looked for what they found; they knew what pleased them only when they saw it.

Henry James / quote

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22Undated

Be not afraid of life believe that life is worth living and your belief will create the fact.

Henry James / quote

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23Undated

To take what there is in life and use it, without waiting forever in vain for the preconceived, to dig deep into the actual and get something out of that; this, doubtless, is the right way to live.

Henry James / quote

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24Undated

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.

Henry James / quote

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