“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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“All knowledge is transient, linked to the world around it and subject to change as the world changes.”
― Shashi Tharoor, quote from The Great Indian Novel
“I'll always have your back,” Ridley said with a wry smile. “Or any part of your body.”
I rolled my eyes and smiled despite myself. “Way to ruin a perfectly nice moment, Ridley.”
― Amanda Hocking, quote from Frostfire
“God is like “Look, dude, I made you a chick.
She is made of your rib, so she might be kinda dumb
I tried just making one out of clay, like how I made you
but she was harboring all these problematic delusions of equality
so I had to find a workaround
anyway, she’s totally hot, so don’t worry about it.”
― Cory O'Brien, quote from Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes: A No-Bullshit Guide to World Mythology
“That kiss was bigger than my dreams." The words found their way to my ear, softly.
I had no doubt that magic did exist in our world. It wasn't with wands and wizards. It resisted in plain humans like me and Ryan. In finding a pathway from one heart into another's. Our bridge was a kiss. It appeared from nowhere with the simplest of spells. Three words.”
― Dan Skinner, quote from Memorizing You
“Everyone hates fractions. That’s why they make you do them. It’s character building.”
― Steve McHugh, quote from Crimes Against Magic
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The Selfish GeneBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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