People talk about the conscience, but it seems to me one must just bring it up to a certain point and leave it there. You can let your conscience alone if you’re nice to the second housemaid.
Henry James
Morality, Simplicity, Conscience, Responsibility, Self-awareness, Kindness
Henry James’s Quotes On Topics
Incident | Rapid | Quality | Life Companionship | Historical Insight | Life Observations | Reluctant Acceptance | Ignorance | Liberal | Young Ladies | Literary Freedom | Grammar | English Elegance | Character Building | Challenging Norms | Romantic Innocence | Morality | Choice | Foreign | Parenthesis | More
More Henry James Quotes
“Huxley is a very genial, comfortable being—yet with none of the noisy and windy geniality of some folks here.” Henry James
Quiet Kindness, Reserved Geniality, Genial, Kindness, Quiet, Reserved
Henry James Quiet Kindness, Reserved Geniality, Genial, Kindness, Quiet, Reserved“I suspect that the age of letters is waning, for our time. It is the age of Panama Canals, of Sandra Bernhardt, of Western wheat raising, of merely material expansion. Art, form, may return, but I doubt I shall live to see them – I don’t believe they are as eternal as the poets say.” Henry James
Cultural Shifts, Materialism, Change, Legacy, Artistic Expression
Henry James Cultural Shifts, Materialism, Change, Legacy, Artistic Expression“If we pretend to respect the artist at all we must allow him his freedom of choice, in the face, in particular cases, of innumerable presumptions that the choice will not fructify.” Henry James
Freedom, Choice, Art, Respect, Presumption, Uncertainty
Henry James Freedom, Choice, Art, Respect, Presumption, Uncertainty“She often wondered indeed if she ever had been, or ever could be, intimate with anyone. She had an ideal of friendship as well as of several other sentiments, which it failed to seem to her in this case – it had not seemed to her in other cases – that the actual completely expressed.” Henry James
Intimacy, Idealism, Relationship, Friendship, Complexity, Understanding
Henry James Intimacy, Idealism, Relationship, Friendship, Complexity, Understanding“What was at all events not permanently hidden from him was a truth much less invidious about his years of darkness. It was the strange scheme of things again: the years of darkness had been needed to render possible the years of light.” Henry James
Darkness And Light, Hidden Truth, Truth, Light, Darkness, Hidden
Henry James Darkness And Light, Hidden Truth, Truth, Light, Darkness, Hidden“The power to guess the unseen from the seen, to trace the implication of things, to judge the whole piece by the pattern, the condition of feeling life, in general, so completely that you are well on your way to knowing any particular corner of it-this cluster of gifts may almost be said to constitute experience, and they occur in country and in town, and in the most differing stages of education.” Henry James
Life Experience, Observational Power, Hidden Insights, Pattern Recognition, General Knowledge, Educational Impact
Henry James Life Experience, Observational Power, Hidden Insights, Pattern Recognition, General Knowledge, Educational Impact“Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” Henry James
Summer Beauty, English Elegance, Summer, Elegance, English, Beauty
Henry James Summer Beauty, English Elegance, Summer, Elegance, English, Beauty“Novelist-Citizen of Two Countries Interpreter of his Generation on both Sides of the Sea.” Henry James
Global Perspective, Literary Interpreter, Perspective, Interpreter, Global, Literary
Henry James Global Perspective, Literary Interpreter, Perspective, Interpreter, Global, Literary“My sole wish is to frustrate as utterly as possible the post-mortem exploiter.” Henry James
Posthumous, Exploitation, Frustration, Legacy, Resistance, Motive
Henry James Posthumous, Exploitation, Frustration, Legacy, Resistance, Motive“Let us be vulgar and have some fun, let us invite the President.” Henry James
Social Gathering, Bold Expression, Celebration, Humor, Invitation, Boldness
Henry James Social Gathering, Bold Expression, Celebration, Humor, Invitation, Boldness“What is either a picture or a novel that is not character?” Henry James
Character, Narrative, Creativity, Storytelling, Identity, Literature
Henry James Character, Narrative, Creativity, Storytelling, Identity, Literature“His full parenthesis was closed, and he was once more but a sentence, of a sort, in the general text, the text that, from his momentary street-corner, showed as a great grey page of print that somehow managed to be crowded without being ‘fine’.” Henry James
Life’s Closure, Written Moments, Parenthesis, Life, Text, Moments
Henry James Life’s Closure, Written Moments, Parenthesis, Life, Text, Moments“Art is a point of view, and a genius way of looking at things.” Henry James
Perspective, Art, Genius, Creativity, Expression, Understanding
Henry James Perspective, Art, Genius, Creativity, Expression, Understanding“When the possibilities themselves had accordingly turned stale, when the secret of the gods had grown faint, had perhaps even quite evaporated, that, and that only, was failure. It wouldn’t have been failure to be bankrupt, dishonoured, pilloried, hanged; it was failure not to be anything.” Henry James
Failure, Possibilities, Secret, Gods, Vaporation, Insignificance
Henry James Failure, Possibilities, Secret, Gods, Vaporation, Insignificance“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
Freedom, Trust, Time, Vigilance, Awareness, Accountability
Henry James Freedom, Trust, Time, Vigilance, Awareness, Accountability“Life is a predicament which precedes death.” Henry James
Life, Predicament, Mortality, Existence, Purpose, Reflection
Henry James Life, Predicament, Mortality, Existence, Purpose, Reflection“Her memory’s your love. You want no other.” Henry James
Cherished Memory, Eternal Love, Memory, Love, Eternal, Cherished
Henry James Cherished Memory, Eternal Love, Memory, Love, Eternal, Cherished“What he thought of her she knew, what he was capable of saying to her she had felt; yet they were married, for all that, and marriage meant that a woman should cleave to the man with whom, uttering tremendous vows, she had stood at the altar.” Henry James
Marital Bonds, Emotional Understanding, Marriage, Bonds, Understanding, Emotional
Henry James Marital Bonds, Emotional Understanding, Marriage, Bonds, Understanding, Emotional