Quotes by Henry Miller

About Henry Miller:

Henry Valentine Miller was an American writer. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms, developing a new sort of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical reflection, explicit language, sex, surrealist free association and mysticism. His most characteristic works of this kind are Tropic of Cancer (1934), Black Spring (1936), Tropic of Capricorn (1939) and The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy (1949–59), all of which are based on his experiences in New York and Paris, and all of which were banned in the United States until 1961. He also wrote travel memoirs and literary criticism, and painted watercolors.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

There is the happiness which comes from creative effort. The joy of dreaming, creating, building, whether in painting a picture, writing an epic, singing a song, composing a symphony, devising new invention, creating a vast industry.

Henry Miller

Everyman has his own destiny: The only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.

Henry Miller

Visata susitraukė, liko tik miesto kvartalo dydžio, joje nebėra žvaigždžių, nebėra medžių, nebėra upių. Žmonės, kurie čia gyvena, yra mirę. Jie dirba kėdes, ant kurių kiti žmonės sėdi sapnuose.

Henry Miller

If this was the true self it was marvelous and what’s more it seemed never to change but always to pick up from the last stop, to continue in the same vein, a vein I had struck when I was a child and went down in the street for the first time alone...

Henry Miller

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

Henry Miller

No matter how vast, how total, the failure of man here on earth, the work of man will be resumed elsewhere. War leaders talk of resuming operations on this front and that, but man's front embraces the whole universe.

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.

Henry Miller

We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.

Henry Miller

The great work must inevitably be obscure, except to the very few, to those who like the author himself are initiated into the mysteries. Communication then is secondary: it is perpetuation which is important. For this only one good reader is necessa...

Henry Miller

The Teutons have been singing the swan song ever since they entered the ranks of history. They have always confounded truth with death.

Henry Miller

In the attempt to defeat death man has been inevitably obliged to defeat life, for the two are inextricably related. Life moves on to death, and to deny one is to deny the other.

Henry Miller

No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.

Henry Miller

Instead of asking 'How much damage will the work in question bring about?' why not ask 'How much good? How much joy?'

Henry Miller

It does me good to write a letter which is not a response to a demand, a gratuitous letter, so to speak, which has accumulated in me like the waters of a reservoir.

Henry Miller

Example moves the world more than doctrine. The great exemplars are the poets of action, and it makes little difference whether they be forces for good or forces for evil.

Henry Miller

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.

Henry Miller

There is nothing strange about fear: no matter in what guise it presents itself it is something with which we are all so familiar that when a man appears who is without it we are at once enslaved by him.

Henry Miller

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

Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. Enthusiasm is nothing: it comes and goes. But if one believes, then miracles occur.

Henry Miller

Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.

Henry Miller

Los Angeles gives one the feeling of the future more strongly than any city I know of. A bad future, too, like something out of Fritz Lang's feeble imagination.

Henry Miller

Author Bio

  • NameHenry Miller
  • DescriptionAmerican novelist
  • BornDecember 26, 1891
  • DiedJune 7, 1980
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Painter; Novelist; Essayist
  • WorksTropic Of Cancer; Black Spring; Tropic Of Capricorn; The Colossus Of Maroussi; The Rosy Crucifixion