“Wherever you go, madam, it will matter little what you carry. You will always carry your goodness.”
― Henry James, quote from The Bostonians
“Miss Chancellor would have been much happier if the movements she was interested in could have been carried on only by people she liked,and if revolutions, somehow, didn't always have to begin with one's self--with internal convulsions,sacrifices,executions.”
― Henry James, quote from The Bostonians
“She had never yet encountered a personage so exotic, and she always felt more at ease in the presence of anything strange. It was the usual things of life that filled her with silent rage; which was natural enough inasmuch as, to her vision, almost everything that was usual was inqiuitous.”
― Henry James, quote from The Bostonians
“I was on the point of saying that a happy chance had favoured him, but it occurs to me that one is under no obligation to call chances by flattering epithets when they have been waited for so long.”
― Henry James, quote from The Bostonians
“The Bostonians is special because it never was ‘titivated’ for the New York edition, for its humour and its physicality, for its direct engagement with social and political issues and the way it dramatized them, and finally for the extent to which its setting and action involved the author and his sense of himself. But the passage above suggests one other source of its unique quality. It has been called a comedy and a satire – which it is. But it is also a tragedy, and a moving one at that. If its freshness, humour, physicality and political relevance all combine to make it a peculiarly accessible and enjoyable novel, it is also an upsetting and disturbing one, not simply in its treatment of Olive, but also of what she tries to stand for. (Miss Birdseye is an important figure in this respect: built up and knocked down as she is almost by fits and starts.) The book’s jaundiced view of what Verena calls ‘the Heart of humanity’ (chapter 28) – reform, progress and the liberal collectivism which seems so essential an ingredient in modern democracy – makes it contentious to this day. An aura of scepticism about the entire political process hangs about it: salutary some may say; destructive according to others. And so, more than any other novel of James’s, it reminds us of the literature of our own time. The Bostonians is one of the most brilliant novels in the English language, as F. R. Leavis remarked;27 but it is also one of the bleakest. In no other novel did James reveal more of himself, his society and his era, and of the human condition, caught as it is between the blind necessity of progress and the urge to retain the old. It is a remarkably experimental modern novel, written by a man of conservative values. It is judgemental about people with whom its author identified, and lenient towards attitudes hostile to large areas of James’s own intellectual and personal inheritance. The strength of the contradictions embodied in the novel are a guarantee of the pleasure it has to give.”
― Henry James, quote from The Bostonians
Henry James
Born place: in New York, New York, The United States
Born date April 15, 1843
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“Daja doesn't exactly need to be tested on whether she's honorable or not."
"Doesn't she? Don't all of you? This is your first taste of the things which may come from your being powerful mages. People will offer you gold, status, even love. I want to know how you will react. If want to know if your teachers will release greedy, thoughtless monsters into the world.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Daja's Book
“There is one purpose to life and one only: to bear witness to and understand as much as possible of the complexity of the world-its beauty, its mysteries, its riddles. The more you understand, the more you look, the greater is your enjoyment of life and your sense of peace. That's all there is to it. Everything else is fun and games. If an activity is not grounded in "to love" or "to learn," it does not have value. - Zurvan”
― Anne Rice, quote from Servant of the Bones
“The only time the word baby doesn't scare me is the time that it should, when it is what a man calls me.”
― Amy Hempel, quote from The Collected Stories
“Det var kejsarinnans far som hade stiftat en lag, att föremål, djur och människor med magiska egenskaper var skyldiga att rapporteras. För det var ju inte lätt att regera i en värld där ett guldträd kunde göra en tiggare till kung och talande djur viskade rebelliska visdomsord till skogsarbetarna.”
― Cornelia Funke, quote from Reckless
“Ramil sighed with relief when the talkative landlord finally decided to go, but he didn't get very far with his supper before Tashi swatted him in the stomach.
"Hot coals? Stringy hair?"
He laughed. "Shh! You know I was only saying what I had to say in front of him."
"But those words occurred to you--you must have thought them!"
Ramil scratched his head, knowing that he was probably damned whatever he said now.
"Well, your eyes can blaze when they're angry. I bet they're blazing now.
And compared to us, your hair is pale--not that it doesn't have a most wonderful color. Um . . . stringy--well, you had been in prison for a while."
"Ram!"
"But you always looked beautiful to me." He put his arm around her. "May I?"he asked.
She nodded, wondering what he was going to do.
He leant forward and sniffed. "Not a hint of brimstone. Just mud and horses."
"What!"
"But I like horses."
"Ram, if you were thinking of making more attempts at winning my affections, I don't think this is the recommended practice in any part of the known world."
"So I still have a chance?" He pulled her snugly against him so she fitted in the crook of his arm.
"Not like this you won't. And don't forget, we are supposed to be brother and sister."
"Ah yes." He dropped his arm. "What a shame”
― Julia Golding, quote from Dragonfly
Max
El Diablo
Bastard Out of Carol...
White Teeth
Under the Never Sky
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