Quotes from Henry Miller

I have never been able to look upon America as young and vital but rather as prematurely old, as a fruit which rotted before it had a chance to ripen.

Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don't take it too seriously.

Honest criticism means nothing: what one wants is unrestrained passion, fire for fire.

The waking mind is the least serviceable in the arts.

The world dies over and over again, but the skeleton always gets up and walks.

To the man whose senses are alive and alert there is not even the need to stir from one's threshold.

And what is the potential man, after all? Is he not the sum of all that is human? Divine, in other words?

The Frenchman is first and foremost a man. He is likeable often just because of his weaknesses, which are always thoroughly human, even if despicable.

Each man has his own way of being himself and of saying it so ultimately that he can't be denied.

France may one day exist no more, but the Dordogne will live on just as dreams live on and nourish the souls of men.

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

A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum.

The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.

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.

Man has demonstrated that he is master of everything - except his own nature.

The world is not to be put in order. The world is order. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order.

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

The only peace the only security is in fulfillment.

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

The poet speaks adequately only when he speaks somewhat wildly... not with intellect alone, but with intellect inebriated by nectar.

I like the one about the little soulworms that fly out of the nest for the resurrection.

One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one.

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

Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything Godlike about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything.