Henry Miller Quotes

“Paint what you like and die happy”

“Who wants to be a hundred? What's the point of it? A short life and a merry one is far better than a long one sustained by fear, caution, and perpetual medical surveillance.”

“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.”

“I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.”

Source: Stand Still Like the Hummingbird

“The real leader has no need to lead. He is content to point the way.”

Source: Tropic of Cancer (1934), Chapter One

“I found that what I had desired all my life was not to live - if what others are doing is called living - but to express myself.”

Source: The Wisdom of the Heart (1941), p. 46

Henry Miller Quotes about life

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

Source: Tropic of Capricorn

“The goal of life is not to possess power but to radiate it.”

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.”

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

Source: Tropic of Cancer

“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.”

A fragment of Miller's unfinished book on D. H. Lawrence, originally published in the London literary journal Purpose.
Source: Tropic of Capricorn (1939) "Creative Death", p. 2

“Everywhere I go people are making a mess of their lives. Everyone has his private tragedy. It's in the blood now - misfortune, ennui, grief, suicide. The atmosphere is saturated with disaster, frustration, futility. Scratch and scratch, until there's no skin left. However, the effect upon me is exhilarating. Instead of being discouraged or depressed, I enjoy it. I am crying for more and more disasters, for bigger calamities, grander failures. I want the whole world to be out of whack, I want every one to scratch himself to death.”

Source: Wisdom of the Heart

Henry Miller Quotes about the world

“My understanding of the meaning of a book is that the book itself disappears from sight, that it is chewed alive, digested and incorporated into the system as flesh and blood which in turn creates new spirit and reshapes the world.”

Source: Tropic of Cancer (1934), Chapter One
Context: Well, I'll take these pages and move on. Things are happening elsewhere. Things are always happening. It seems wherever I go there is drama. 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. Everywhere I go people are making a mess of their lives. Everyone has his private tragedy. It's in the blood now - misfortune, ennui, grief, suicide. The atmosphere is saturated with disaster, frustration, futility. Scratch and scratch, until there's no skin left. However, the effect upon me is exhilarating. Instead of being discouraged or depressed, I enjoy it. I am crying for more and more disasters, for bigger calamities, grander failures. I want the whole world to be out of whack, I want every one to scratch himself to death.

“To be joyous is to be a madman in a world of sad ghosts.”

“have you ever seen a genius out there looking for a job? it's the saddest thing in the world. no one will hire him. there is only one place where he is always welcome- at the bottom.”

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

“I am glad to be a maggot in the corpse which is the world.”

“To walk in money through the night crowd, protected by money, lulled by money, dulled by money, the crowd itself a money, the breath money, no least single object anywhere that is not money, money, money everywhere and still not enough, and then no money or a little money or less money or more money, but money, always money, and if you have money or you don't have money it is the money that counts and money makes money, but what makes money make money?”

Henry Miller on Writing (1964)

Henry Miller: Trending quotes

“One day, during one of their sessions, Gurdjieff tells Peters to look out the window and describe what he sees. 'An oak tree' the child answers. 'And what do you see on the oak tree?' 'Acorns' Peters replies. 'How many of these acorns do you suppose will become trees?' Fritz Peters is stumped, [-] 'Maybe five or six?'
'No' retorts Gurdjieff. 'Only one will become a tree, perhaps, none! Nature is always very giving, but it only gives possibility. It takes hard work and great effort to become a tree or a genuine man.”

Tropic of Capricorn (1939)

“Through art then, one finally establishes contact with reality: that is the great discovery. Here all is play and invention; there is no solid foothold from which to launch the projectiles which will pierce the miasma of folly, ignorance and greed. The world has not to be put in order: the world is order incarnate. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order, to know what is the world order in contradistinction to the wishful-thinking orders which we seek to impose on one another. The power which we long to possess, in order to establish the good, the true and the beautiful, would prove to be, if we could have it, but the means of destroying one another. It is fortunate that we are powerless.”

Reflections (1981)

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

Source: Miller, H. (1969). “Creation,” The Henry Miller Reader. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation. p.33.

Henry Miller Quotes

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

“Words are loneliness.”

“Let me be, was all I wanted. Be what I am, no matter how I am.”

Source: Tropic of Cancer

“Serenity is when you get above all this, when it doesn't matter what they think, say or want, but when you do as you are, and see God and Devil as one.”

Source: Stand Still Like the Hummingbird

“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.”

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

“To have her here in bed with me, breathing on me, her hair in my mouth—I count that something of a miracle.”

“I have found God, but he is insufficient.”

Source: Tropic of Cancer

“All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without the benefit of experience.”

Source: Tropic of Cancer

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

“I made up my mind that I would hold onto nothing, that I would expect nothing.”

Source: Tropic of Cancer

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

Source: Tropic of Cancer

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

Source: Tropic of Cancer

Henry Miller book Sexus

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

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

Henry Miller book Sexus

Source: Sexus

“I have always looked upon decay as being just as wonderful and rich an expression of life as growth.”

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

“Even the idiot may have a message for us”

“There's something perverse about women… they're all masochists at heart.”

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

Source: Tropic of Cancer

“It is with the soul that we grasp the essence of another person, not with the mind, not even with the heart.”

“Day by day. No yesterdays and no tomorrows. The barometer never changes, the flag is always at half-mast.”

Variant: It is with the soul that we grasp the essence of another human being, not with the mind, nor even with 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.”

Source: Tropic of Cancer

“My hunger and curiosity drive me forward in all directions at once.”

Henry Miller book Plexus

Source: The Rosy Crucifixion II: Plexus (1953), p. 61

“If we have not found heaven within, it is a certainty we will not find it without.”

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

The Books in My Life (1952) Chapter 11: The Story of My Heart (2nd edition. New York: New Directions Publishing, 1969, p. 192)

“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 on Writing (1964)

Henry Miller book The Colossus of Maroussi

The Colossus of Maroussi (1941)

“She was to me, and still is, the greatest person I have known - one who can truly be called a "devoted" soul. I owe her everything.”

“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.”

Letters of Henry Miller and Wallace Fowlie (1975)

Henry Miller book The Air-Conditioned Nightmare

With Edgar Varèse in the Gobi Desert http://books.google.com/books?id=jAEY3Kbnj3oC&q=&quot;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&quot;&pg=PA172#v=onepage, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (1945)

“The Happiest peoples, it is said, are those which have no history. Those who have a history, those who have made history seem only to have emphazied through their acomplishments the eternality of struggle. These disappear too eventually, just as those who made no effort, who were content to merely live & enjoy.”

“Through it all I learned the value of being humble to the dust, reduced to ashes. Everyone should experience that. Before you can recognize you're somebody, you have to know you're nobody. [-] The butterfly was just a lowly worm in its beginning. The worm didn't live with the moment-to-moment expectation of sprouting wings and taking flight. He lived a useful and productive life, the life of a worm. And he had to die a worm in order to be born as an angel! The spinning of the cocoon is, in and of itself, remarkable. It is as wondrous as the emergence and first flight of the butterfly.”

Source: Henry Miller on Writing (1964)

“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.”

Reflections (1981)

“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.”

Source: Tropic of Cancer (1934), Chapter Two

“Take a good look at me. Now tell me, do you think I'm the sort of fellow who gives a fuck what happens once he's dead?”

Reflections (1981)

“I am a free man-and I need my freedom. I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion. I need sunshine and paving tones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself with only the music of my heart for company. What do you want of me? When I have something to say, I put it in print. When I have something to give, I give it. Your prying curiosity turns my stomach! Your compliments humiliate me. Your tea poisons me! I owe nothing to anyone, I would've responsible to God alone-if he exited!”

Source: Tropic of Capricorn (1939) New York: Grove Press, 1961, p. 313

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

Source: Tropic of Cancer (1934), Chapter Four, Pappin

Henry Miller book The Colossus of Maroussi

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

“The great ones do not set up offices, charge fees, give lectures, or write books. Wisdom is silent, and the most effective propaganda for truth is the force of personal example. The great ones attract disciples, lesser figures whose mission is to preach and to teach. These are gospelers who, unequal to the highest task, spend their lives in converting others. The great ones are indifferent, in the profoundest sense. They don't ask you to believe: they electrify you by their behavior. They are the awakeners.”

Henry Miller book Sexus

Source: Sexus

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

“A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition.”

“I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company.”

Source: The Books in My Life

“Everybody says sex is obscene. The only true obscenity is war.”

Source: Tropic of Cancer (1934), Chapter Four, Pappin
Context: I am a free man-and I need my freedom. I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion. I need sunshine and paving tones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself with only the music of my heart for company. What do you want of me? When I have something to say, I put it in print. When I have something to give, I give it. Your prying curiosity turns my stomach! Your compliments humiliate me. Your tea poisons me! I owe nothing to anyone, I would've responsible to God alone-if he exited!

“Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate, or despise, serves to defeat us in the end.”

Source: Tropic of Cancer

“No life in the whole history of man has been so misinterpreted, so woefully misunderstood as Christ's.”

“All about us we see a world in revolt; but revolt is negative, a mere finishing-off process. In the midst of destruction we carry with us also our creation, our hopes, our strength, our urge to be fulfilled.”

"The Absolute Collective", an essay first published in The Criterion on The Absolute Collective : A Philosophical Attempt to Overcome Our Broken State by Erich Gutkind, as translated by Marjorie Gabain
The Wisdom of the Heart (1941)
Context: All about us we see a world in revolt; but revolt is negative, a mere finishing-off process. In the midst of destruction we carry with us also our creation, our hopes, our strength, our urge to be fulfilled. The climate changes as the wheel turns, and what is true for the sidereal world is true for man. The last two thousand years have brought about a duality in man such as he never experienced before, and yet the man who dominates this whole period was one who stood for wholeness, one who proclaimed the Holy Ghost. No life in the whole history of man has been so misinterpreted, so woefully misunderstood as Christ's. If not a single Man has shown himself capable of following the example of Christ, and doubtless none ever will for we shall no longer have need of Christs, nevertheless this one profound example has altered our climate. Unconsciously we are moving into a new realm of being; what we have brought to perfection, in our zeal to escape the true reality, is a complete arsenal of destruction; when we have rid ourselves of the suicidal mania for a beyond we shall begin the life of here and now which is reality and which is sufficient unto itself. We shall have no need for art or religion because we shall be in ourselves a work of art. This is how I interpret realistically what Gutkind has set forth philosophically; this is the way in which man will overcome his broken state. If my statements are not precisely in accord with the text of Gutkind's thesis, I nevertheless am thoroughly in accord with Gutkind and his view of things. I have felt it my duty not only to set forth his doctrine, but to launch it, and in launching it to augment it, activate it. Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to the enduring fact of mystery. I am one man who can truly say that he has understood and acted upon this profound thought of Gutkind's —“the stupendous fact that we stand in the midst of reality will always be something far more wonderful than anything we do."

“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.”

“I want to undress you, vulgarize you a bit.”

Source: Stand Still Like the Hummingbird

“There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy”

Source: A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin Henry Miller, 1932-1953