April 23, 2004

Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to

This is actually a passage from Henry James’s “The Ambassador”, referred to in “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by someone whom the author calls "her magician":
“It occurs at a party given by the famous sculptor Gloriani. Lambert Strether, the hero of the novel, tells a young painter, little Bilham, whom he has unofficially appointed as his spiritual heir: ”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? I’m too old- too old at any rate for what I see. What one loses one loses; make no mistakes about that. Still, we have the illusion of freedom; therefore don’t, like me to-day, be without the memory of that illusion. I was either, at the right time, too stupid or too intelligent to have it, and now I’m a case of reaction against the mistake. For it was a mistake. Live, live!”
p. 247

April 23, 2004 09:11 PM

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