Henry Miller

Henry Miller

Novelist, Essayist

Henry Miller was an American writer known for his semi-autobiographical novels, particularly 'Tropic of Cancer,' which challenged societal norms and explored themes of freedom and love.

Men Writing Thinking Art Life Book
Born
December 26, 1891
Died
June 7, 1980
Quotes
441
Rank
#457

Quote collection

Henry Miller quotes (page 13 of 23)

441 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Henry Miller Novelist, Essayist
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"What I secretly longed for was to disentangle myself of all those lives which had woven themselves into the pattern of my own life and were making my destiny a part of theirs. To shake myself free of these accumulating experiences which were mine only by force of inertia required a violent effort. Now and then I lunged and tore at the net, but only to become more enmeshed. My liberation seemed to involve pain and suffering to those near and dear to me. Every move I made for my own private good brought about reproach and condemnation. I was a traitor a thousand times over."

Pain Moving Destiny
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"Serenity is when you get above all this, when it doesn't matter what they think, say or want, but when you do as you are, and see God and Devil as one."

Thinking Serenity Devil
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"Certainly paradise, whatever, wherever it be, contains flaws. (Paradisical flaws, if you like.) If it did not, it would be incapable of drawing the hearts of men or angels."

Heart Angel Men
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"The concert is a polite form of self induced torture."

Self Form Concerts
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"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."

America Looks Literature
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"History is the myth, the true myth, of man's fall made manifest in time."

Time Fall Men
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"I'm an egotist, but I'm not selfish. There's a difference. I'm a neurotic, I guess. I can't stop thinking about myself. It isn't that I think myself so important. I simply can't think about anything else, that's all."

Falling In Love Selfish Thinking
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"Hitler is no worse, nay better, in my opinion, than the other lugs. He makes the German mistake of being tactless, that's all."

Mistake Opinion Dictator
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"Tomorrow you may bring about the destruction of your world. Tomorrow you may sing in Paradise above the smoking ruins of your world-cities. But tonight I would like to think of one man, a lone individual, a man without name or country, a man whom I respect because he has absolutely nothing in common with you - MYSELF. Tonight I shall meditate upon that which I am."

Country Men Thinking
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"The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself. All that you despise, all that you loathe, all that you reject, all that you condemn and seek to convert by punishment springs from you."

Spring Punishment Study
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"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."

Country Divorce Men
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"If I were reading a book and happened to strike a wonderful passage I would close the book then and there and go for a walk. I hated the thought of coming to the end of a good book. I would tease it along, delay the inevitable as long as possible, But always, when I hit a great passage, I would stop reading immediately. Out I would go, rain, hail, snow or ice, and chew the cud."

Book Reading Rain
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"I am living at the Villa Borghese. There is not a crumb of dirt anywhere, nor a chair misplaced. We are all alone here and we are dead."

Dirt Villa All Alone
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"After all, most writing is done away from the typewriter, away from the desk. I'd say it occurs in the quiet, silent moments, while you're walking or shaving or playing a game, or whatever, or even talking to someone you're not vitally interested in."

Writing Typewriters Talking
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"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 hadn't the courage to live and who under the guise of morality and religion have imposed these things upon us."

Hangover People Broken
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