Henry James Sr. Quotes on Politics

Quotes

• Attributed to Henry James Sr.:

  “Society itself is the destined incarnation of the divine.”

• “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 degree important and worthy of observation.”

  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