Henry Miller

The man who is forever disturbed about the condition of humanity either has no problems of his own or has refused to face them.

Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring, through obeying the blind urge.

We have two American flags always; one for the rich and one for the poor. When the rich fly it it means that things are under control; when the poor fly it it means danger, revolution, anarchy.

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.

In the attempt to defeat death man has been inevitably obliged to defeat life, for the two are inextricably related. Life moves on to death, and to deny one is to deny the other.

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

In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance.

For one crime which is expiated in prison ten thousand are committed thoughtlessly by those who condemn.

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.

The new always carries with it the sense of violation, of sacrilege. What is dead is sacred; what is new, that is, different, is evil, dangerous, or subversive.

One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one.

The Frenchman is first and foremost a man. He is likeable often just because of his weaknesses, which are always thoroughly human, even if despicable.

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

The Englishman, be it noted, seldom resorts to violence; when he is sufficiently goaded he simply opens up, like the oyster, and devours his adversary.

The blind lead the blind. It’s the democratic way.

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

We do not talk—we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests.

1 feel that America is essentially against the artist, that the enemy of America is the artist, because he stands for individuality and creativeness, and that’s wn-American somehow.

It isn’t the oceans which cut us off from the world—it’s the American way of looking at things.

Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life.

It’s a curse. Yes, it’s a flame. It owns you. It has possession over you. You are not the master of yourself. You are consumed by this thing.

The artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist. The artist does not tinker with the universe; he re-creates it out of his own experience and understanding of life.

Even before the music begins there is that bored look on people’s faces. A polite form of self-torture, the concert.

Living apart and at peace with myself, I came to realize more vividly the meaning of the doctrine of acceptance.

One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.

The American ideal is youth -- handsome, empty youth.

How different the new order would be if we could consult the veteran instead of the politician.

Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly.

If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having.

To be silent the whole day long, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip, be thoroughly and completely lazy, thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a man can give himself.

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. Loose yourself in it, and you are free.

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.

Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack.

What does it matter how one comes by the truth so long as one pounces upon it and lives by it?

In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.

Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.