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 Patriotism
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. -Henry James Art
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 Alone
A man who pretends to understand women is bad manners. For him to really to understand them is bad morals. -Henry James Women
The face of nature and civilization in this our country is to a certain point a very sufficient literary field. But it will yield its secrets only to a really grasping imagination. To write well and worthily of American things one need even more than elsewhere to be a master. -Henry James Imagination
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. -Henry James Life
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. -Henry James Women
It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance... and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process. -Henry James Beauty
