Frases de Henry James

“As pessoas sempre me interessaram mas nunca me agradaram.”

“Era sempre possível a ele acusá-la de o ver como o mais inofensivo dos loucos, e isso, a longo prazo - já que tão abrangente -, era, a seu ver, a melhor definição daquela amizade; para ela, ele teria um parafuso frouxo, mas ela gostava dele assim mesmo e praticamente, contra o resto do mundo, era sua gentil e sábia guardiã, não remunerada mas bem contente, e na inexistência de outros laços, exercendo uma ocupação honrada. O resto do mundo com certeza o considerava esquisito, mas ela, ela somente, sabia como, e acima de tudo, por que esquisito; e isso era exatamente o que permitia a ela arrumar o véu do disfarce em dobras certas.”

“Ela, Kate Croy, esperava a vinda do pai, mas ele se fazia esperar, sem a menor consideração, e houve momentos em que a moça exibiu par si mesma, no espelho acima do console da lareira, um rosto decididamente pálido, com uma irritação que a levou a ponto de ir embora sem vê-lo.”

“Foi nesse ponto que ela viu completo o despedaçamento de sua grande pergunta, viu que lhe restava apenas o senso de estar ali com ele. E não houve arrepio, por isso, no que também acabou vendo -que, como quer que houvesse começado, agora agia por um desejo particular, determinado por novos fatos ou novas fantasias, de ser igual a todos os demais, simplificadoramente "bondoso" com ela.”

“É necessária uma grande quantidade de História para se fazer pouca literatura.”

“Não há mentira pior do que uma verdade mal compreendida por aqueles que a ouvem.”

“Para mim, um escritor tem justificação para escrever um livro se estiver apaixonado pelo tema.”

“A arte faz a vida, o interesse, a importância; não conheço nenhum substituto que tenha a força e a beleza deste processo.”

“Não prestes atenção ao que alguém te diga sobre outro. Acostuma-te a julgar cada um por ti mesmo.”

“Vive tanto quanto possas, é um erro proceder de outra maneira.”

“Não lamento um único excesso dos que cometi na juventude. Só lamento, na minha avançada idade, as ocasiões e possibilidades que não aproveitei.”

“As ideias são, na realidade, força.”

“É preciso muitíssima história para forjar uma pequena tradição.”

“A única obrigação que um romance deve cumprir desde o início, sem incorrer na acusação de arbitrariedade, é a de ser interessante.”

“O molho de pão honrado pelo tempo do final feliz.”

“Não pretendo saber para que servem as pessoas ", disse Madame Merle." Só sei o que posso fazer com elas.”

“Há poucas coisas mais emocionantes para mim, em resumo, do que uma razão psicológica.”

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

“She ordered a cup of tea, which proved excessively bad, and this gave her a sense that she was suffering in a romantic cause.”

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

“You must save what you can of your life; you musn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part.”

“She feels in italics and thinks in CAPITALS.”

“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.”

“Sorrow comes in great waves… but rolls over us, and though it may almost smother us, it leaves us. And we know that if it is strong, we are stronger, inasmuch as it passes and we remain.”

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

“I call people rich when they're able to meet the requirements of their imagination.”

“She had an immense curiosity about life, and was constantly staring and wondering.”

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

“If one is strong, one loves the more strongly.”

“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.”

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

“Love has nothing to do with good reasons.”

“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.”

“do you think it is
better to be clever than to be good?”
“Good for what?” asked the Doctor. “You are good for
nothing unless you are clever.”

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

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

“It's time to start living the life you've imagined.”

“I don't want everyone to like me; I should think less of myself if some people did.”

“I'm yours for ever--for ever and ever. Here I stand; I'm as firm as a rock. If you'll only trust me, how little you'll be disappointed. Be mine as I am yours.”

“Her reputation for reading a great deal hung about her like the cloudy envelope of a goddess in an epic.”

“I always want to know the things one shouldn't do."
"So as to do them?" asked her aunt.
"So as to choose." said Isabel”

“Live all you can — it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?”

“And remember this, that if you've been hated, you've also been loved.”

“Never say you know the last word about any human heart.”

“Try to be one of those on whom nothing is lost.”

“Obstacles are those frightening things you see when you take you eyes off your goal.”