Henry Miller

let me be want am

“Let me be, was all I wanted. Be what I am, no matter how I am.”

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

interest life people literature music forget yourself

“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.”

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

need to be alone ponder shame despair

“I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company.”

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

aim of life live aware joyously drunkenly sincerely divinely

“The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

destination place new way seeing

“One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

sex obscene obscenity war

“Everybody says sex is obscene. The only true obscenity is war.”

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

no money resources hope happiest man alive

“I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.”

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

peace being having

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

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

salvation adapted crazy world

“There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy”

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

security mind chop limbs artificial pain trouble

"The man who looks for security, even in the mind, is like a man who would chop off his limbs in order to have artificial ones which will give him no pain or trouble."

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

forties feel young 40

"It was only in my forties that I started feeling young."

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

everything hinge look perspective

"Everything hinges on how you look at things"

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

silent day newspaper gossip lazy indifferent world medicine

"To be silent the whole day long, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip, be thoroughly and completely lazy, thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a man can give himself."

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

progrss life adapting daring

"Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring."

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

beer library prisons asylum rule

"Keep your libraries, your penal institutions, your insane asylums... give me beer.You think man needs rule, he needs beer. The world does not need morals, it needs beer... The souls of men have been fed with indigestibles, but the soul could make use of beer."

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

discover telling important story

"Somewhere along the way one discovers that what one has to tell is not nearly so important as the telling itself."

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

short cut lesson most difficult way easiest long run

"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 (1891-1980)

science hoax religion nationalism patriotism fraud leprosy

"He saw that science had become as great a hoax as religion, that nationalism was a farce, patriotism a fraud, education a form of leprosy, and that morals were for cannibals"

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)

change world live

"I soon found out you can't change the world. The best you can do is to learn to live with it."

— Henry Miller (1891-1980)