Zitate von Henry James

„Unterschätzen Sie den Wert der Ironie nicht - sie ist äußerst wertvoll.“

—  Henry James

„Summer afternoon – Sommernachmittag; für mich sind das immer die beiden schönsten Wörter der englischen Sprache gewesen.“

—  Henry James

„Wenn man stark ist, liebt man stärker.“

—  Henry James

„Wenn dies Liebe war, war die Liebe überbewertet worden.“

—  Henry James

„Geld ist eine schreckliche Sache, der man folgen muss, aber eine charmante Sache, die man treffen muss.“

—  Henry James

„Es braucht viel Geschichte, um ein wenig Literatur zu produzieren.“

—  Henry James

„In der Kunstwirtschaft ist immer Schönheit.“

—  Henry James

„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

Overheard by his nephew, Billy James, in 1902; quoted in Leon Edel, Henry James: A Life, vol V: The Master 1901-1916 (1972).

„Don't mind anything anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.“

—  Henry James, buch The Portrait of a Lady

Quelle: The Portrait of a Lady (1881), Ch. XXIII.

„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, buch The Middle Years

Quelle: The Middle Years (1893).

„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, buch The Europeans

Quelle: The Europeans

„Her imagination was by habit ridiculously active; when the door was not open it jumped out the window.“

—  Henry James, buch The Portrait of a Lady

Quelle: The Portrait of a Lady

„He is outside of everything, and an alien everywhere. He is an aesthetic solitary. His beautiful, light imagination is the wing that on the autumn evening just brushes the dusky window.“

—  Henry James

"Nathaniel Hawthorne" in Library of the World's Best Literature, vol. XII (1897), ed. Charles Dudley Warner.

„Besides, I try to judge things for myself; to judge wrong, I think, is more honourable than not to judge at all.“

—  Henry James, buch The Portrait of a Lady

Quelle: The Portrait of a Lady (1881), Ch. XVI.

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

—  Henry James, buch The Portrait of a Lady

Quelle: The Portrait of a Lady

„She feels in italics and thinks in CAPITALS.“

—  Henry James

„Don’t underestimate the value of irony—it is extremely valuable.“

—  Henry James, buch Washington Square

Quelle: Washington Square

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

—  Henry James

Quoted by Edith Wharton, A Backward Glance (1934), ch. 10.

„I'm glad you like adverbs — I adore them; they are the only qualifications I really much respect.“

—  Henry James

Letter to Miss M. Betham Edwards (5 January 1912).