M.attie

Verified author @M.attie, member from March 18, 2022

“I'm crazy enough to believe that the happiest man on earth is the man with the fewest needs.”

Henry Miller book The Colossus of Maroussi

Source: The Colossus of Maroussi (1941) Part 2, p. 133

“Madness is tonic and invigorating. It makes the sane more sane. The only ones who are unable to profit by it are the insane.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

“Do not be duped by little duties. Do not be a chore man all your days.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

“The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware. In this state of god-like awareness one sings; in this realm the world exists as poem.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Source: Wisdom of the Heart

“The worst sin that can be committed against the artist is to take him at his word, to see in his work a fulfillment instead of an horizon.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

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

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Source: Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch (1957), p. 400

“Life's wildest moment---she kneels on the sidewalk. Everything else she does is lies, lies.”

Henry Miller book Sexus

Source: Sexus

“To be free, as I then knew myself to be, is to realize that all conquest is vain, even the conquest of self, which is the last act of egotism. To be joyous is to carry the ego to its last summit and to deliver it triumphantly. To know peace is total: it is the moment after, when the surrenderer is complete, when there is no longer even the consciounsness of surrender. Peace is at the centre and when it is attainded the voice issues forth in praise and benediction. Then the voice carries far and wide, to the outermost limits of the universe. Then it heals, because it brings light and the warmth of compassion.”

Henry Miller book The Colossus of Maroussi

The Colossus of Maroussi (1941)

“To be generous is to say yes before the man even opens his mouth.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Henry Miller on Writing (1964)

“The man who doesn't respond to music, the man without music in his soul is not to be trusted. A man like that is cold and empty, empty to the core.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Reflections (1981)

“For a hundred years or more the world, our world, has been dying. And not one man, in these last hundred years or so, has been crazy enough to put a bomb up the asshole of creation and set it off. The world is rotting away, dying piecemeal. But it needs the coup de grace, it needs to be blown to smithereens.”

Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer

Source: Tropic of Cancer (1934), Chapter Two

“We are dancing in the hollow of nothingness. We are one flesh, but separated like stars.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

“I'm a bit retarded, like most Americans.”

Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer

Source: Tropic of Cancer

“Why are we so full of restraint? Why do we not give in all directions? Is it fear of losing ourselves? Until we do lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

“All I ask of life, he says, is a bunch of books, a bunch of dreams, and a bunch of cunt.”

Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer

Source: Tropic of Cancer

“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 book Tropic of Cancer

Source: Tropic of Cancer

“I'm delirious because I'm dying so fast.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

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

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

1945 Source: [Kaufman, Charlie, Inspirational Writing Advice From Charlie Kaufman - On Writing, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRfXcWT_oFs, YouTube, BAFTA Guru, 2017-01-06, 2020-03-09] (at 7:08 of 41:08)

“One’s destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things.”

Henry Miller book Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch

Variant: Often misquoted as "One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things".
Source: Miller, H. (1957). Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch

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

Henry Miller book Sexus

Source: The Rosy Crucifixion I: Sexus (1949), Ch. 9, p. 205