Henry Miller Quotes

For the man in the paddock, whose duty is is to sweep up manure,the supreme terror is the possibility of a world without horses. Totell him that it is disgusting to spend one’s life shoveling up hotturds is a piece of imbecility. A man can get to love shit if hislivelihood depends on it, if his happiness is involved.

~ Henry Miller

A beautiful nap this afternoon that put velvet between my vertebrae.

~ Henry Miller

It is almost banal to say so yet it needs to be stressed continually: all is creation, all is change, all is flux, all is metamorphosis.

~ Henry Miller

I saw the errors I had made and assumed full responsibility for everything.

~ Henry Miller

I wanted a metamorphosis, a change to fish, to leviathan, to destroyer. I wanted the earth to open up, to swallow everything in one engulfing yawn. I wanted to see the city buried fathoms deep in the bosom of the sea. I wanted to sit in a cave and read by candlelight. I wanted that eye extinguished so that I might have a chance to know my own body, my own desires. I wanted to be alone for a thousand years in order to reflect on what I had seen and heard - and in order to forget.

~ Henry Miller

I see myself forever and ever as the ridiculous [person], the lonely soul, the wanderer, the restless frustrated artist, the [person] in love with love, always in search of the absolute, always seeking the unattainable.

~ Henry Miller

Over and over again I have said that there is no way out of the present impasse. If we were wide awake we would be instantly struck by the horrors which surround us ... We would drop our tools, quit our jobs, deny our obligations, pay no taxes, observe no laws, and so on. Could the man or woman who is thoroughly awakened possibly do the crazy things which are now expected of him or her every moment of the day?

~ Henry Miller

But you can’t put fight into a man’s guts if hehasn’t any fight in him. There are some of us so cowardly that youcan’t ever make heroes of us, not even if you frighten us to death.We know too much, maybe. There are some of us who don’t live in themoment, who live a little ahead, or a little behind.

~ Henry Miller

When a situation gets so bad that no solution seems possible there is left only murder and suicide, or both. These failing, one becomes a buffoon.

~ Henry Miller

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

~ Henry Miller

For in Mexico, ladies and gentlemen, it's always high noon and what glows is fuchsia and what's dead is dead and no feather-dusters.

~ Henry Miller

No stone was laid upon· another with love or reverence; no street was laid for dance or joy. One thing has been added to another in a mad scramble to fill the belly, and the streets smell of empty bellies and full bellies and bellies half full. The streets smell of a hunger which has nothing to do with love; they smell of thc belly which is insatiable and of the creations of the cmpty helly which are null and void.

~ Henry Miller

If you can't give the is-ness of a thing give the not-ness of it! The main thing is to hook up, get the wheels turning, sound off. When your brakes jam, try going in reverse. If often works.

~ Henry Miller

We have no need for genius - genius is dead. We have need for strong hands, for spirits who are willing to give up the ghost and put on flesh...

~ Henry Miller

For the moment I can think of nothing— except that I am a sentient being stabbed by the miracle of these waters that reflect a forgotten world.

~ Henry Miller

either you take in believing in miracles or you stand still like the hummingbird.

~ Henry Miller

If at eighty you're not a cripple or an invalid, if you have your health, if you still enjoy a good walk, a good meal (with all the trimmings), if you can sleep without first taking a pill, if birds and flowers, mountains and sea still inspire you, you are a most fortunate individual and you should get down on your knees morning and night and thank the good Lord for his savin' and keepin' power. If you are young in years but already weary in spirit, already on your way to becoming an automaton, it may do you good to say to your boss - under your breath, of course - Fuck you, Jack! you don't own me. If you can whistle up your ass, if you can be turned on by a fetching bottom or a lovely pair of teats, if you can fall in love again and again, if you can forgive your parents for the crime of bringing you into the world, if you are content to get nowhere, just take each day as it comes, if you can forgive as well as forget, if you can keep from going sour, surly, bitter and cynical, man you've got it half licked.

~ Henry Miller

The most difficult thing to adjust to, apparently, is peace and contentment.

~ Henry Miller

New York! The white prisons, the sidewalks swarming with maggots, the breadlines, the opium joints that are built like palaces, the kikes that are there, the lepers, the thugs, and above all, the ennui, the monotony of faces, streets, legs, houses, skyscrapers, meals, posters, jobs, crimes, loves... A whole city erected over a hollow pit of nothingness. Meaningless. Absolute meaningless.

~ Henry Miller

1) Work on one thing at a time until finished.2) Start no more new books, add no more new material to Black Spring.3) Don't be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.4) Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!5) When you can't create you can work.6) Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.7) Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.8) Don't be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure

~ Henry Miller

Before I shall have become a man again I shall probably exist as a park, a sort of natural park in which people come to rest, to while away the time. What they say or do will be of little matter, for they will bring only their fatigue, their boredom, their hopelessness.

~ Henry Miller

How speak about an art which no one recognizes as an art? I know that a great deal has already been written about the art of the cinema. One can read about it most every day in the newspapers & the magazines. But it is not the art of the cinema which you will find discussed therein--it is rather dire, botched embryo as it now stands revealed before our eyes, the still-birth which was mangled in the womb by the obstetricians of art.

~ Henry Miller

What distinguishes the majority of men from the few is their ability to act accordingly to their beliefs.

~ Henry Miller

The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself.

~ Henry Miller

Destiny is what you are supposed to do in life. Fate is what kicks you in the ass to make you do it.

~ Henry Miller

One of the reasons why so few of us ever act instead of react is because we are continually stifling our deepest impulses.

~ Henry Miller

The ordinary man is involved in action the hero acts. An immense difference.

~ Henry Miller

Like ships men flounder time and time again.

~ Henry Miller

We create our fate every day we live.

~ Henry Miller

The only peace the only security is in fulfillment.

~ Henry Miller

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

~ Henry Miller

Example moves the world more than doctrine.

~ Henry Miller

We create our fate every day ... most of the ills we suffer from are directly traceable to our own behavior.

~ Henry Miller

I struggled in the beginning. I said I was going to write the truth so help me God. And I thought I was. I found I couldn't. Nobody can write the absolute truth.

~ Henry Miller

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

The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love.

~ Henry Miller

The great work must inevitably be obscure, except to the very few, to those who like the author himself are initiated into the mysteries. Communication then is secondary: it is perpetuation which is important. For this only one good reader is necessary.

~ Henry Miller

Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.

~ Henry Miller

True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself.

~ Henry Miller

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

~ Henry Miller