Quotes by

Henry Miller

Obscenity is a cleansing process, whereas pornography only adds to the murk. – Henry Miller

Moralities, ethics, laws, customs, beliefs, doctrines –these are of trifling import. All that matters is that the miraculous become the norm. – Henry Miller

Topographically the country is magnificent — and terrifying. Why terrifying? Because nowhere else in the world is the divorce between man and nature so complete. Nowhere have I encountered such a dull, monotonous fabric of life as here in America. Here boredom reaches its peak. – 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

The word which gives the key to the national vice is waste. And people who are wasteful are not wise, neither can they remain young and vigorous. In order to transmute energy to higher and more subtle levels one must first conserve it. – Henry Miller

Chaos is the score upon which reality is written. – Henry Miller

Its silly to go on pretending that under the skin we are all brothers. The truth is more likely that under the skin we are all cannibals, assassins, traitors, liars, hypocrites, poltroons. – Henry Miller

There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy. – Henry Miller

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

The prisoner is not the one who has committed a crime, but the one who clings to his crime and lives it over and over. – Henry Miller

Analysis brings no curative powers in its train; it merely makes us conscious of the existence of an evil, which, oddly enough, is consciousness. – Henry Miller

Man torturing man is a fiend beyond description. You turn a corner in the dark and there he is. You congeal into a bundle of inanimate fear. You become the very soul of anesthesia. But there is no escaping him. It is your turn now… – 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

To live without killing is a thought which could electrify the world, if men were only capable of staying awake long enough to let the idea soak in. – Henry Miller

Whenever a taboo is broken, something good happens, something vitalizing. Taboos after all are only hangovers, the product of diseased minds, you might say, of fearsome people who hadnt the courage to live and who under the guise of morality and religion have imposed these things upon us. – Henry Miller

I didnt have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, lets say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing! – Henry Miller

Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood. – Henry Miller

In the beginning was the Word. Man acts it out. He is the act, not the actor. – 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

Music is a beautiful opiate, if you dont take it too seriously. – Henry Miller