Famous Quotes by Henry Miller (115 Quotations)

We have been educated to such a fine — or dull — point that we are incapable of enjoying something new, something different, until we are first told what it's all about. We don't trust our five senses; we rely on our critics and educators, all of whom are failures in the realm of creation. In short, the blind lead the blind. It's the democratic way.

Henry Miller – [Critics and Criticism]

We have two American flags always: one for the rich and one for the poor. When the rich fly it means that things are under control; when the poor fly it means danger, revolution, anarchy.

Henry Miller – [Society]

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 – [Mind]

What distinguishes the majority of men from the few is their inability to act according to their beliefs.

Henry Miller – [Belief]

What have we achieved in mowing down mountain ranges, harnessing the energy of mighty rivers, or moving whole populations about like chess pieces, if we ourselves remain the same restless, miserable, frustrated creatures we were before? To call such activity progress is utter delusion. We may succeed in altering the face of the earth until it is unrecognizable even to the Creator, but if we are unaffected wherein lies the meaning?

Henry Miller – [Environmentalism]

What holds the world together, as I have learned from bitter experience, is sexual intercourse.

Henry Miller – [Sex]

What is not in the open street is false, derived, that is to say, literature.

Henry Miller – [Literature]

Whatever needs to be maintained through force is doomed.

Henry Miller – [Force]

Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring, through obeying the blind urge.

Henry Miller – [Progress]

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 – [Trying]

When you know what men are capable of you marvel neither at their sublimity nor their baseness. There are no limits in either direction apparently.

Henry Miller – [Potential]

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.

Henry Miller – [Taboos]

Who hates the Jews more than the Jew?

Henry Miller – [Judaism and Jews]

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 – [Self-control]

You can travel fifty thousand miles in America without once tasting a piece of good bread.

Henry Miller – [Food and Eating]