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

“An artist is always alone - if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness.”

— Henry Miller

“Develop interest in life as you see it in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.”

— Henry Miller

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

— 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

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

— 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

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

— Henry Miller

“The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love.”

— 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

“In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.”

— Henry Miller

“When one is trying to do something beyond his known powers it is useless to seek the approval of friends. Friends are at their best in moments of defeat.”

— Henry Miller

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

— 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 necessary.”

— Henry Miller

“Sin, guilt, neurosis they are one and the same, the fruit of the tree of knowledge.”

— 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

“We live in the mind, in ideas, in fragments. We no longer drink in the wild outer music of the streets - we remember only.”

— Henry Miller

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

— Henry Miller

“Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack. We give it orders which make no sense.”

— Henry Miller

“True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself.”

— Henry Miller