“The charm turned on them a face that was cold in its beauty, that was full of a poetry never to be theirs, that spoke, with an ironic smile, of a possible but forbidden life. It all rolled afresh over Milly: 'Oh, the impossible romance—!' The romance for her, yet once more, would be to sit there for ever, through all her time, as in a fortress; and the idea became an image of never going down, of remaining aloft in the divine, dustless air, where she would hear but the plash of the water against stone. The great floor on which they moved was at an altitude, and this prompted the rueful fancy. 'Ah, not to go down—never, never to go down!' she strangely sighed to her friend.” RomanceBeautyRomanticLovelyCharmDescriptionForbiddenHenry JamesThe Wings Of The DoveHomebody Book:The Wings of the Dove Source: The Wings of the Dove
“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” LiteratureBeautySummerEnglish Author:Henry James
“She had once heard an enthusiastic musician, out of patience with a gifted bungler, declare that a fine voice is really an obstacle to singing properly; and it occurred to her that it might perhaps be equally true that a beautiful face is an obstacle to the acquisition of charming manners.” BeautySingingMannersCharm Author:Henry James
“It has not been a successful life.' 'No -- it has only been a beautiful one.” LifeBeautifulSuccessBeautySuccessful Author:Henry James