Henri Bergson Quotes

Quotes about:

• Fortunately, some are born with spiritual immune systems that sooner or later give rejection to the illusory worldview grafted upon then from birth through social conditioning. They begin sensing that something is amiss, and start looking for answers. Inner knowledge and anomalous outer experiences show them a side of reality others are oblivious to, and so begins the journey of awakening. Each step of the journey is made by following the heart instead of the crowd, and by choosing knowledge over veils of ignorance.

  Henri Bergson

  Motivational, Spiritual, Philosophy

  "On Intuition vs. Intellect" by Henri Bergson, 1907.

  120 Copy quote

• To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

  Henri Bergson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Henri Bergson (2015). “Creative Evolution”, p.16, Sheba Blake Publishing

  116 Copy quote

• The idea of the future, pregnant with an infinity of possibilities, is thus more fruitful than the future itself, and this is why we find more charm in hope than in possession, in dreams than in reality.

  Henri Bergson

  Dream, Reality, Ideas

  Henri Bergson (2012). “Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness”, p.24, Courier Corporation

  71 Copy quote

• I would say act like a man of thought and think like a man of action.

  Henri Bergson

  Inspirational, Life, Philosophical

  Henri Bergson's speech at the Descartes Conference in Paris, 1937.

  67 Copy quote

• Homo sapiens, the only creature endowed with reason, is also the only creature to pin its existence on things unreasonable.

  Henri Bergson

  Doubt, Atheism, Reason

  62 Copy quote

• Some other faculty than the intellect is necessary for the apprehension of reality.

  Henri Bergson

  Reality, Faculty, Intellect

  60 Copy quote

• There is no greater joy than that of feeling oneself a creator. The triumph of life is expressed by creation.

  Henri Bergson

  Happiness, Laughter, Creativity

  58 Copy quote

• We are free when our actions emanate from our total personality, when they express it, when they resemble it in the indefinable way a work of art sometimes does the artist.

  Henri Bergson

  Art, Work, Personality

  40 Copy quote

• If reality impacted directly on our senses and our consciousness, if we could have direct communication between the material world and ourselves, art would be unnecessary.

  Henri Bergson

  Art, Communication, Reality

  40 Copy quote

• Intuition is a method of feeling one's way intellectually into the inner heart of a thing to locate what is unique and inexpressible in it.

  Henri Bergson

  Heart, Unique, Feelings

  "Georgia O'Keeffe, 1887-1986: Flowers in the desert". Book by Britta Benke, January 27, 1995.

  31 Copy quote

• The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause.

  Henri Bergson

  Time, Past, Causes

  'L'Evolution crèatrice' (1907) ch. 1

  30 Copy quote

• Men do not sufficiently realize that their future is in their own hands. Theirs is the task of determining first of all whether they want to go on living or not. Theirs is the responsibility, then, for deciding if they want merely to live, or intend to make just the extra effort required for fulfilling, even on this refractory planet, the essential function of the universe, which is a machine for the making of gods.

  Henri Bergson

  Responsibility, Men, Hands

  "The Two Sources of Morality and Religion". Book by Henri Bergson, 1932.

  10 Copy quote

• It is with our entire past ... that we desire, will and act ... from this survival of the past it follows that consciousness cannot go through the same state twice. The circumstances may still be the same, but they will act no longer on the same person ... that is why our duration is irreversible.

  Henri Bergson

  Science, Past, Survival

  Henri Bergson (2014). “Creative Evolution”, p.13, Lulu Press, Inc

  27 Copy quote

• To drive out the darkness, bring in the light.

  Henri Bergson

  Light, Darkness

  12 Copy quote

• Intelligence is characterized by a natural incomprehension of life.

  Henri Bergson

  Wisdom, Science, Intelligence

  16 Copy quote

• Life does not proceed by the association and addition of elements, but by dissociation and division.

  Henri Bergson

  Life, Philosophical, Doe

  Henri Bergson (2002). “Henri Bergson: Key Writings”, p.197, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

• It is emotion that drives the intelligence forward in spite of obstacles.

  Henri Bergson

  Emotion, Obstacles, Spite

  10 Copy quote

• All the translations of a poem in all possible languages may add nuance to nuance and, by a kind of mutual retouching, by correcting one another, may give an increasingly faithful picture of the poem they translate, yet they will never give the inner meaning of the original.

  Henri Bergson

  Faith, Giving, Poetry

  Henri Bergson (1961). “Introduction to metaphysics”

  7 Copy quote

• Action on the move creates its own route, creates to a very great extent the conditions under which it is to be fulfilled and thus baffles all calculation.

  Henri Bergson

  Moving, Action, Habit

  Henri Bergson (2014). “Key Writings”, p.406, Bloomsbury Publishing

  8 Copy quote

• The motive power of democracy is love

  Henri Bergson

  Philosophical, Democracy, Motive

  29 Copy quote

• ... divine love is not something belonging to God: it is God Himself.

  Henri Bergson

  Love, Divine, Belonging

  13 Copy quote

• Sex-appeal is the keynote of our whole civilization.

  Henri Bergson

  Sex, Civilization, Appeals

  Henri Bergson (2002). “Henri Bergson: Key Writings”, p.335, A&C Black

  34 Copy quote

• Only those ideas that are least truly ours can be adequately expressed in words.

  Henri Bergson

  Ideas

  29 Copy quote

• One can always reason with reason.

  Henri Bergson

  Reason, Mathematician

  9 Copy quote

• Art has no other object than to set aside the symbols of practical utility, the generalities that are conventionally and socially accepted, everything in fact which masks reality from us, in order to set us face to face with reality itself.

  Henri Bergson

  Art, Reality, Order

  19 Copy quote

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