More
from and about
Henry James
(biographical info at bottom of page) |
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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? |
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To
believe in a child is to believe in the future. Through their
aspirations
they will save the world. With their combined knowledge the
turbulent
seas of hate and injustice will be calmed. They will champion the
causes
of life's underdogs, forging a society without class
discrimination. They
will supply humanity with music and beauty as it has never known.
They
will endure. Towards these ends I pledge my life's work. I will
supply the
children with tools and knowledge to overcome the obstacles. I
will pass
on the wisdom of my years and temper it with patience. I shall
impact in
each child the desire to fulfill his or her dream. I shall teach.
To take what
there is in life and use it, without waiting forever in vain for
the preconceived, to dig deep into the actual and get something
out of that; this, doubtless, is the right way to live.
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Life is, in fact, a battle.
Evil is insolent and strong;
beauty enchanting, but rare; goodness very apt to be weak;
folly very apt to be defiant; wickedness to carry the day;
imbeciles to be in great places, people of sense in small,
and mankind generally unhappy. But the world as it stands
is no narrow illusion, no phantasm, no evil dream of the
night; we wake up to it, forever and ever; and we can
neither forget it nor deny it nor dispense with it.
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Whatever life
you lead you must put your soul in it--to make any sort of success in it; and from the moment you do that it ceases to
be romance, I assure you: it becomes grim reality! And you
can't always please yourself; you must sometimes please
other people. That, I admit, you're very ready to do; but
there's another thing that's still more important--you must
often displease others. You must always be ready for
that--you must never shrink from it. . . . You must be
prepared on many occasions in life to please no one at
all--not even yourself.
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Excellence
does not require perfection.
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And remember this, that if you've been hated,
you've also been loved. |
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True
happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self;
but the point is not only to get out - you must stay out;
and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand. |
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The
right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have. |
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Don't
mind anything any one tells you about any one else.
Judge everyone and everything for yourself. |
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Henry
James (1843-1916), American-born writer, gifted with talents in
literature, psychology, and philosophy. James wrote 20
novels, 112
stories, 12 plays and a number of works of literary criticism.
Henry James was born on April 15, 1843 in New York City into a
wealthy
family. His father, Henry James Sr., was one of the
best-known
intellectuals in mid-nineteenth-century America. In his
youth James
traveled back and forth between Europe and America. He
studied with
tutors in Geneva, London, Paris, Bologna and Bonn. At the
age of 19 he
briefly attended Harvard Law School, but preferred reading
literature to
studying law. James published his first short story, "A
Tragedy of
Errors" two years later, and devoted himself to
literature. In 1866-69
and 1871-72 he was a contributor to the Nation and Atlantic
Monthly.
From an early age James had read the classics of English,
American,
French and German literature and Russian classics in
translation. His
first novel, Watch And Ward (1871), was written while he
was traveling
through Venice and Paris. After living in Paris, where he
was
contributor to the New York Tribune, James moved to
England, living
first in London and then in Rye, Sussex. During his first
years in
Europe James wrote novels that portrayed Americans living
abroad. In
1905 James visited America for the first time in twenty-five
years, and
wrote "Jolly Corner."
The outbreak of World War I was a shock for James and in 1915 he
became a British citizen as a declaration of loyalty to his
adopted country and in protest against the US's refusal to enter
the war. James suffered a stroke on December 2, 1915.
He died three months
later in Rye on February 28, 1916.
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