Henry James

Men, among the mortally afflicted, suffer on the whole more overtly and more grossly than women, and resist with a ruder, an inferior strategy.

Marguerite Yourcenar

Le reste de la beauté humaine passait au rang de spectacle, cessait d’être ce gibier dont j’avais été le chasseur.

Henry James

I don’t pretend in the least to understand our national destinies – or those of any portion of the world. My philosophy is no match for them, and I regard the march of history very much as a man placed astride of a locomotive, without knowledge or help, would regard the progress of that vehicle.  To stick on, somehow, and even enjoy the scenery as we pass, is the sum of my aspiration.