Henry James Sr. Quotes
Henry James Sr. was an American philosopher and religious thinker and the father of the novelist Henry James and the philosopher William James. The quotes below are attributed to Henry James Sr., organized by topic.
Browse Henry James Sr. by topic
Henry James Sr. on Freedom
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Attributed to Henry James Sr.:
“Conventional respectability is the enemy of true spiritual freedom.”
Henry James Sr. on God
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Attributed to Henry James Sr.:
“All true thought is the discovery of God's life within our own.”
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Attributed to Henry James Sr.:
“The natural is one half of the spiritual; the spiritual is the completion of the natural.”
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Attributed to Henry James Sr.:
“Society itself is the destined incarnation of the divine.”
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Attributed to Henry James Sr.:
“Each soul is the unique angle from which heaven looks at itself.”
Henry James Sr. on Justice
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“Ancient Law, Its Connection with the Early History of Society, and Its Relation to Modern Ideas (1 ed.). London: John Murray (1861). p. 170”
The movement of the progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from Status to Contract . -
“So great is the ascendancy of the Law of Actions in the infancy of Courts of Justice, that substantive law has at first the look of being gradually secreted in the interstices of procedure; and the early lawyer can only see the law through the envelope of its technical forms.”
Dissertations on Early Law and Custom’ (1883) ch. 11 -
“Dissertations on Early Law and Custom’ (1883) ch. 11”
So great is the ascendancy of the Law of Actions in the infancy of Courts of Justice, that substantive law has at first the look of being gradually secreted in the interstices of procedure; and the early lawyer can only see the law through the envelope of its technical forms.
Henry James Sr. on Knowledge
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“The movement of the progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from Status to Contract .”
Ancient Law, Its Connection with the Early History of Society, and Its Relation to Modern Ideas (1 ed.). London: John Murray (1861). p. 170 -
“Nobody is at liberty to attack several property and to say at the same time that he values civilisation. The history of the two cannot be disentangled. Civilisation is nothing more than a name for the old order of the Aryan world, dissolved but perpetually re-constituting itself under a vast variety of solvent influences, of which infinitely the most powerful have been those which have, slowly, an”
Village-Communities in the East and West (1876 ed.), p. 230
Henry James Sr. on Mind
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“We cannot give a reason, other than mere chance, why power over a wife should have retained the name of manus , why power over a child should have obtained another name, potestas , why power over slaves and inanimate property should in later times be called dominium . But, although the transformation of meanings be capricious, the process of specialisation is a permanent phenomenon, in the highest degree important and worthy of observation.”
The early history of the property of married women ( c. 1873)
Henry James Sr. on Nature
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“Except the blind forces of Nature, nothing moves in this world which is not Greek in its origin.”
‘Village Communities’ (3rd ed., 1876) p. 238
Henry James Sr. on Politics
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“The family was based, not upon actual relationship, but upon power, and the husband acquired over his wife the same despotic power which the father had over his children.”
The early history of the property of married women ( c . 1873) -
“The delusion that Democracy, when it has once had all things put under its feet, is a progressive form of government, lies deep in the convictions of a particular political school, but there can be no delusion grosser.”
Popular Government: Four Essays | p. 111
Henry James Sr. on Time
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“The early history of the property of married women ( c . 1873)”
The family was based, not upon actual relationship, but upon power, and the husband acquired over his wife the same despotic power which the father had over his children. -
“The early history of the property of married women ( c. 1873)”
We cannot give a reason, other than mere chance, why power over a wife should have retained the name of manus , why power over a child should have obtained another name, potestas , why power over slaves and inanimate property should in later times be called dominium . But, although the transformation of meanings be capricious, the process of specialisation is a permanent phenomenon, in the highest -
“Nobody is at liberty to attack several property and to say at the same time that he values civilisation. The history of the two cannot be disentangled. Civilisation is nothing more than a name for the old order of the Aryan world, dissolved but perpetually re-constituting itself under a vast variety of solvent influences, of which infinitely the most powerful have been those which have, slowly, and in some parts of the world much less perfectly than others, substituted several property for collective ownership.”
Village-Communities in the East and West (1876 ed.), p. 230