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I found that what I had desired all my life was not to live - if what others are doing is called living - but to express myself.

Henry Miller

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Henry Miller
Age: 88 †
Born: 1891
Born: December 26
Died: 1980
Died: June 7
Essayist
Novelist
Painter
Writer
New York City
New York
Genri Miller
Henri Miller
Phineas Flapdoodle
Called
Living
Found
Others
Live
Life
Desired
Express

More quotes by Henry Miller

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I demanded a realm in which I should be both master and slave at the same time: The world of art is the only such realm.
Henry Miller
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The man who is forever disturbed about the condition of humanity either has no problems of his own or has refused to face them.
Henry Miller
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The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.
Henry Miller
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Every man is working out his destiny in his own way and nobody can be of any help except by being kind, generous, and patient.
Henry Miller
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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
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There is nothing in itself which is wrong or evil not even murder.
Henry Miller
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The City of New York is like an enormous citadel, a modern Carcassonne. Walking between the magnificent skyscrapers one feels the presence on the fringe of a howling, raging mob, a mob with empty bellies, a mob unshaven and in rags.
Henry Miller
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Words are loneliness.
Henry Miller
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What does it matter how one comes by the truth so long as one pounces upon it and lives by it?
Henry Miller
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People used to envy me my inspiration. I hate inspiration. It takes you over completely. I could never wait until it passed and I got rid of it.
Henry Miller
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A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation... A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.
Henry Miller
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Keep your libraries, your penal institutions, your insaneasylums... 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
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The tragedy of it is that nobody sees the look of desperation on my face. Thousands and thousands of us, and we're passing one another without a look of recognition.
Henry Miller
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Until we accept the fact that life itself is founded in mystery, we shall learn nothing.
Henry Miller
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Those interested in celestial navigation are advised to first obtain a rudimentary knowledge of integral calculus, phlebotomy, astral physics and related subjects. The use of liquor is strictly forbidden on interplanetary flights.
Henry Miller
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It is the American vice, the democratic disease which expresses its tyranny by reducing everything unique to the level of the herd.
Henry Miller
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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.
Henry Miller
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For the artist to attach himself to his work, or identify himself with it, is suicidal.
Henry Miller
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The only difference between the Adamic man and the man of today is that the one was born to Paradise and the other has to create it.
Henry Miller
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The world isn't kept running because it's a paying proposition. (God doesn't make a cent on the deal.) The world goes on because a few men in every generation believe in it utterly, accept it unquestioningly they underwrite it with their lives.
Henry Miller