René Daumal Quotes (12 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Foreword
A Night of Serious Drinking (1938)
Context: Words are made for a certain exactness of thought, as tears are for a certain degree of pain. What is least distinct cannot be named; what is clearest is unutterable.

“You cannot always stay on the summits. You have to come down again...”

René Daumal book Mount Analogue

Mount Analogue (1952)

“My observations are those of a beginner.”

René Daumal book Mount Analogue

Mount Analogue (1952)
Context: My observations are those of a beginner. As they are completely fresh in my mind and concern the first difficulties a beginner encounters, they may be more useful to beginners making their first ascents than treatises written by professionals. These are no doubt more methodical and complete, but are intelligible only after a little preliminary experience. The entire aim of these notes is to help the beginner acquire this preliminary experience a little faster.

“Man is head, chest and stomach. Each of these animals operates, more often than not, individually. I eat, I feel, I even, although rarely, think…. This jungle crawls and teems, is hungry, roars, gets angry, devours itself, and its cacophonic concert does not even stop when you are asleep.”

René Daumal

Vol. 2, Essais et Notes
The Lie of the Truth (1938)

“Common experience is the gold reserve which confers an exchange value on the currency which words are; without this reserve of shared experiences, all our pronouncements are cheques drawn on insufficient funds.”

René Daumal book A Night of Serious Drinking

Foreword
A Night of Serious Drinking (1938)

“It is still not enough for language to have clarity and content … it must also have a goal and an imperative. Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble and from babble to confusion.”

René Daumal book A Night of Serious Drinking

Foreword
A Night of Serious Drinking (1938)