Henry James Quotes & Sayings

“Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”

“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.”

“It takes an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition.”

“Do not mind anything that anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.”

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.”

“To criticize is to appreciate, to appropriate, to take intellectual possession, to establish in fine a relation with the criticized thing and to make it one's own.”

“The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life.”

“Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what have you had?”

“Young men of this class never do anything for themselves that they can get other people to do for them, and it is the infatuation, the devotion, the superstition of others that keeps them going. These others in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred are women.”

“Deep experience is never peaceful.”