Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“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.”
- Source
- The Ambassadors
- Date
- 1903
Meaning of “Live all you can; it’s a mistake not…”
Strether urges a younger man not to let caution consume the opportunity to experience life, speaking from his own painful sense of what he postponed or missed.
Where does it come from?
The Ambassadors, Book Fifth, Chapter II, Project Gutenberg #432. Strether tells little Bilham “Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to” during the Gloriani-garden conversation, speaking from regret about opportunities he believes he missed. James’s own Preface identifies this speech as central to the novel, but the line remains fictional character dialogue rather than James autobiography or universal life advice.
