“To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world—in order to set up a shadow world of "meanings."”

As quoted in Hard-to-Solve Cryptograms (2001) by Derrick Niederman, p. 96

The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature (1841)

Source: The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976), Chapter 4, Toward the Great Instauration, p. 146

The Cycles of American History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986) p. 422

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

Attributed

Source: From Beyond

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Der Philosoph legt sich – also selbst eine abstrakte Gestalt des entfremdeten Menschen – als den Maßstab der entfremdeten Welt an.
Paris Manuscripts (1844)