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Henry Miller Quotes - Page 8

All Quotes Acceptance Art Beauty Boredom Cancer Change Chaos Christ Consciousness Creation Creativity Crime Criticism Curiosity Death Destiny Dying Earth Eating Effort Ego Evil Falling In Love Fashion Fate Fear Feelings Funny Giving Giving Up Grace Gratitude Growth Happiness Hate Heart History Humanity Imagination Inspiration Inspirational Integrity Joy Life Literature Live Life Love Lying Music Nature Pain Passion Past Peace Perspective Philosophy Progress Purpose Reading Reality Running Silence Sin Singing Soul Spring Struggle Suffering Time Tragedy Travel Understanding Vision Waiting War Water Writing

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

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

Eye, Light, Whole

Henry Miller (2010). “The Colossus of Maroussi (Second Edition)”, p.210, New Directions Publishing

Writing, like life itself, is a voyage of discovery.

Nature, Writing, Discovery

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

I thought, when I came upon her, that I was seizing hold of life... Instead I lost hold of life completely. I reached out for something to attach myself to - and I found nothing. But in reaching out, in the effort to grasp, to attach myself, left high and dry as I was, I nevertheless found something I had not looked for - myself.

Effort, Dry, Quiet

Henry Miller, Mary V. Dearborn (2007). “Crazy Cock”, p.17, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

If the poet can no longer speak for society, but only for himself, then we are at the last ditch.

Writing, Lasts, Speak

Henry Miller (1962). “The Time of the Assassins: A Study of Rimbaud”, p.33, New Directions Publishing

I think someday you're going to be a great writer," he said. "But" he added maliciously, "first you'll have to suffer a bit. I mean really suffer, because you don't know what the word means yet. You only think you've suffered. You've got to fall in love first.

Falling In Love, Mean, Thinking

Henry Miller (1966). “Tropic of Capricorn”

The world isn't kept running because it's a paying proposition. (God doesn't make a cent on the deal.) The world goes on because a few men in every generation believe in it utterly, accept it unquestioningly; they underwrite it with their lives.

Running, Believe, Greatness

Henry Miller (1970). “The Air-conditioned Nightmare”, p.169, New Directions Publishing

In every man's heart there is anchored a little schooner.

Heart, Men, Discovery

Until we accept the fact that life itself is founded in mystery, we shall learn nothing.

Life, Humility, Literature

Every man with a bellyful of the classics is an enemy to the human race.

Men, Race, Enemy

Tropic of Cancer (1934) p. 280

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

Time, Drama, Creating

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

Perhaps I am still very much of an American. That is to say, naïve, optimistic, gullible. In the eyes of a European, what am I but an American to the core, an American who exposes his Americanism like a sore. Like it or not, I am a product of this land of plenty, a believer in superabundance, a believer in miracles.

Optimistic, Eye, Land

Henry Miller (1957). “Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch”, p.319, New Directions Publishing

To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs, and a little knowledge of music. It is not necessary to have an accordion, or a guitar. The essential thing is to want to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.

Song, Guitar, Singing

Henry Miller, Norman Mailer (1976). “Genius and lust: a journey through the major writings of Henry Miller”, Grove Press

It's the pleasure of picking up the brush and seeing what happens.

Pleasure, Brushes, Happens

Henry Miller (2016). “Henry Miller Interview 1”, p.3, Masters Masterworks

What I secretly longed for was to disentangle myself of all those lives which had woven themselves into the pattern of my own life and were making my destiny a part of theirs. To shake myself free of these accumulating experiences which were mine only by force of inertia required a violent effort. Now and then I lunged and tore at the net, but only to become more enmeshed. My liberation seemed to involve pain and suffering to those near and dear to me. Every move I made for my own private good brought about reproach and condemnation. I was a traitor a thousand times over.

Pain, Moving, Destiny

Hitler is no worse, nay better, in my opinion, than the other lugs. He makes the German mistake of being tactless, that's all.

Mistake, Opinion, Dictator

Everything was for tomorrow, but tomorrow never came. The present was only a bridge and on this bridge they are still groaning, as the world groans, and not one idiot ever thinks of blowing up the bridge.

Thinking, Bridges, World

Henry Miller (1966). “Tropic of Capricorn”

You have to write a million words before you find your voice as a writer.

Writing, Voice, Millions

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

Yield, Joy, Produce

Henry Miller (1977). “Tropic of Cancer”

All growth is a leap in the dark.

Inspirational, Dark, Growth

Henry Miller (1941). “The Wisdom of the Heart”, p.90, New Directions Publishing

Example moves the world more than doctrine.

Moving, Example, Doctrine

Henry Miller (1961). “The Cosmological Eye”, p.183, New Directions Publishing

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.

Blood, People, Skins

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

Certainly paradise, whatever, wherever it be, contains flaws. (Paradisical flaws, if you like.) If it did not, it would be incapable of drawing the hearts of men or angels.

Heart, Angel, Men

Henry Miller (1957). “Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch”, p.25, New Directions Publishing

If I am against the condition of the world it is not because I am a moralist, it is because I want to laugh more. I don't say that God is one grand laugh: I say that you've got to laugh hard before you can get anywhere near God. My whole aim in life is to get near to God, that is, to get nearer to myself. That's why it doesn't matter to me what road I take. But music is very important. Music is a tonic for the pineal gland. Music isn't Bach or Beethoven; music is the can opener of the soul. It makes you terribly quiet inside, makes you aware that there's a roof to your being.

Laughing, Soul, Important

Henry Miller (1966). “Tropic of Capricorn”

Everyone has his own reality in which, if one is not too cautious, timid or frightened, one swims. This is the only reality there is.

Reality, Swim, Frightened

Henry Miller (1962). “Stand Still Like the Hummingbird”, p.44, New Directions Publishing

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

Acceptance, Evil, Joy

Henry Miller (1959). “The Henry Miller Reader”, p.356, New Directions Publishing

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