Henry Miller Quotes - Page 14

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• I wanted to die; I wanted to surrender because I saw no sense in struggling. I felt that nothing would be proved, substantiated, added or subtracted by continuing an existence which I had not asked for.

  Henry Miller

  Crazy, Struggle, Mad

  Henry Miller (1966). “Tropic of Capricorn”

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henry Miller

  Writing, Lines, Action

  Henry Miller, John Calder (1985). “A Henry Miller reader”, Riverrun Pr

  9 Copy quote

• For the artist to attach himself to his work, or identify himself with it, is suicidal.

  Henry Miller

  Suicidal, Artist

  Henry Miller (1964). “Henry Miller on Writing”, New Directions Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• Whoever uses the spirit that is in him creatively is an artist. To make living itself an art, that is the goal.

  Henry Miller

  Art, Creativity, Goal

  Henry Miller (1957). “Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch”, p.400, New Directions Publishing

  5 Copy quote

• No matter how vast, how total, the failure of man here on earth, the work of man will be resumed elsewhere. War leaders talk of resuming operations on this front and that, but man's front embraces the whole universe.

  Henry Miller

  War, Men, Space

  Henry Miller (1959). “The Henry Miller Reader”, p.132, New Directions Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• That we cannot rise equal to situations when we are in them — that is the tragedy of life.

  Henry Miller

  Tragedy, Equal, Situation

  Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller (1989). “A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller, 1932-1953”, p.179, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• My understanding of the meaning of a book is that the book itself disappears from sight, that it is chewed alive, digested and incorporated into the system as flesh and blood which in turn creates new spirit and reshapes the world.

  Henry Miller

  Book, Sight, Blood

  Henry Miller (1966). “Tropic of Capricorn”

  4 Copy quote

• The essential thing is to WANT to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.

  Henry Miller

  Song, Singing, Essentials

  Henry Miller, John Calder (1985). “A Henry Miller reader”, Riverrun Pr

  4 Copy quote

• The moment one is on the side of life; peace and security drop out of consciousness. The only peace, the only security, is in fulfillment.

  Henry Miller

  Peace, Sides, Consciousness

  Henry Miller (1941). “The Wisdom of the Heart”, p.87, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• The monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses.

  Henry Miller

  Men, Rose, Want

  Henry Miller (1977). “Tropic of Cancer”

  6 Copy quote

• Each man has his own way of being himself and of saying it so ultimately that he can't be denied.

  Henry Miller

  Men, Individuality, Way

  4 Copy quote

• Often, when following the trail which meanders over the hills, I pull myself up in an effort to encompass the glory and the grandeur which envelops the whole horizon. Often, when the clouds pile up in the north and the sea is churned with white caps, I say to myself: "This is the California that men dreamed of years ago, this is the Pacific that Balboa looked out on from the Peak of Darien, this is the face of the earth as the Creator intended it to look.

  Henry Miller

  Men, Clouds, Years

  Henry Miller (1957). “Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch”, p.6, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henry Miller

  Men, Literature, Limits

  Henry Miller (1970). “The Air-Conditioned Nightmare”, p.85, New Directions Publishing

  8 Copy quote

• And what is the potential man, after all? Is he not the sum of all that is human? Divine, in other words?

  Henry Miller

  Men, Literature, Divine

  Henry Miller (1957). “Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch”, p.320, New Directions Publishing

  6 Copy quote

• Your nearness is the nearness of planets. I am the void between you. If I withdraw there will be no void for you to swim in.

  Henry Miller

  Swim, Void, Planets

  Henry Miller (1977). “Tropic of Cancer”

  4 Copy quote

• The piano bar is the gateway to the halls of masturbation.

  Henry Miller

  Piano, Romance, Bars

  4 Copy quote

• The poem is the dream made flesh, in a two-fold sense: as work of art, and as life, which is a work of art.

  Henry Miller

  Dream, Art, Two

  Henry Miller (1941). “The Wisdom of the Heart”, p.4, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

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

  Henry Miller

  Damage Is Done, Joy, Why Not

  Henry Miller (1970). “The Air-conditioned Nightmare”, p.172, New Directions Publishing

  8 Copy quote

• Human beings make a strange fauna and flora. From a distance they appear negligible; close up they are apt to appear ugly and malicious. More than anything they need to be surrounded with sufficient space―space even more than time.

  Henry Miller

  Distance, Space, Needs

  Henry Miller (1959). “The Henry Miller Reader”, p.36, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• The vast difference between astrology and other sciences, if I may put it thus, is that astrology deals not with facts but with profundities. The solid ground on which the scientist pretends to rest gives way, in astrology, to imponderables.

  Henry Miller

  Differences, Astrology, Giving

  4 Copy quote

• Greece is the home of the gods; they may have died but their presence still makes itself felt. The gods were of human proportion: they were created out of the human spirit.

  Henry Miller

  Home, May, Spirit

  Henry Miller (2010). “The Colossus of Maroussi”, p.205, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• The only law which is really lived up to wholeheartedly and with a vengeance is the law of conformity.

  Henry Miller

  Freedom, Law, Differences

  Henry Miller (1962). “The Time of the Assassins: A Study of Rimbaud”, p.29, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• One can see now how the idea of heaven takes hold of men's consciousness, how it gains ground even when all the props have been knocked from under it. There must be another world beside this swamp in which everything is dumped pell-mell. It's hard to imagine what it can be like, this heaven that men dream about.

  Henry Miller

  Dream, Men, Ideas

  Henry Miller (1977). “Tropic of Cancer”

  4 Copy quote

• But it's just because the chances are all against you, just because there is so little hope, that life is sweet over here.

  Henry Miller

  Sweet, Littles, Chance

  Henry Miller (1977). “Tropic of Cancer”

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henry Miller

  Art, Book, Destiny

  Tropic of Cancer ch. 1 (1934)

  10 Copy quote

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