Henry Miller Quotes

I made up my mind that I would hold onto nothing, that I would expect nothing.

The legal system is often a mystery, and we, its priests, preside over rituals baffling to everyday citizens.

Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack. We give it orders which make no sense.

It does me good to write a letter which is not a response to a demand, a gratuitous letter, so to speak, which has accumulated in me like the waters of a reservoir.

Next to love friendship, in my opinion, is the most valuable thing life has to offer.

When spring comes to Paris the humblest mortal alive must feel that he dwells in paradise.

This is not a book in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty... what you will.

Until we lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves.

Voyages are accomplished inwardly.

Writing is its own reward.

We must not just be in the world and above the world, but also of the world. To love it for what it is... is the only task. Avoid it and you are lost. Lose yourself in it, and you are free.

Do anything, but let it produce joy. Do anything, but let it yield ecstasy.

Los Angeles gives one the feeling of the future more strongly than any city I know of. A bad future, too, like something out of Fritz Lang's feeble imagination.

When you travel often, you will be addicted to it forever.

All growth is a leap in the dark.

Everything remains unsettled forever, depend on it

My hunger and curiosity drive me forward in all directions at once.

I am positively against all this crap which is carried on first in the name of this thing, then in the name of that. I believe only in what is active, immediate, and personal.

I am of the order whose purpose is not to teach the world a lesson but to explain that school is over.

What seems nasty, painful, evil can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind.

The imperfections of a man, his frailties, his faults, are just as important as his virtues.You can't separate them. They're wedded.

We are dancing in the hollow of nothingness. We are one flesh, but separated like stars.

There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy.

have you ever seen a genius out there looking for a job? it's the saddest thing in the world. no one will hire him. there is only one place where he is always welcome- at the bottom.

A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum.

The waking mind, you see, is the least serviceable in the arts.

It is the American vice, the democratic disease which expresses its tyranny by reducing everything unique to the level of the herd.

As long as that spark of passion is missing there is no human significance in the performance.

The light of Greece opened my eyes, penetrated my pores, expanded my whole being.

On the meridian of time, there is no injustice: there is only the poetry of motion creating the illusion of truth and drama.

We live at the edge of the miraculous.

I had a microscopic eye for the blemish, for the grain of ugliness which to me constituted the sole beauty of the object.

Instead of asking 'How much damage will the work in question bring about?' why not ask 'How much good? How much joy?'

When one is trying to do something beyond his known powers it is useless to seek the approval of friends. Friends are at their best in moments of defeat.

When you know what men are capable of you marvel neither at their sublimity nor their baseness. There are no limits in either direction apparently.

Sin, guilt, neurosis; they are one and the same, the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

Example moves the world more than doctrine. The great exemplars are the poets of action, and it makes little difference whether they be forces for good or forces for evil.

I'd rather sit down and write a letter than call someone up. I hate the telephone.

We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.

Develop an Interest in Life as you see it.

I have made a silent compact with myself not to change a line of what I write. I am not interested in perfecting my thoughts, nor my actions.

The tragedy of it is that nobody sees the look of desperation on my face. Thousands and thousands of us, and we're passing one another without a look of recognition.

What have we to offer the world beside the superabundant loot which we recklessly plunder from the earth under the maniacal delusion that this insane activity represents progress and enlightenment?

Life, as it is called, is for most of us one long postponement.

Moralities, ethics, laws, customs, beliefs, doctrines - these are of trifling import. All that matters is that the miraculous become the norm.

The only difference between the Adamic man and the man of today is that the one was born to Paradise and the other has to create it.

One can be absolutely truthful and sincere even though admittedly the most outrageous liar. Fiction and invention are of the very fabric of life.

If men cease to believe that they will one day become gods then they will surely become worms.

People are like lice - they get under your skin and bury themselves there. You scratch and scratch until the blood comes, but you can't get permanently deloused.

Work on one thing at a time until finished.