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To make living itself an art, that is the goal.

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
Make
Teaching
Goal
Living
Art

More quotes by Henry Miller

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For a metaphysical treat stop at the Big Sur Inn, which is also a haven for stray cats and dogs. Life along the South Coast is just a bed of roses, with a few thorns and nettles interspersed.
Henry Miller
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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
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All my good reading, you might say, was done in the toilet.
Henry Miller
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Madness is tonic and invigorating. It makes the sane more sane. The only ones who are unable to profit by it are the insane.
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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But it's just because the chances are all against you, just because there is so little hope, that life is sweet over here.
Henry Miller
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What seems nasty, painful, evil can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind.
Henry Miller
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I don't know whether you've ever had a woman eat an apple while you were doing it. Well, you can imagine how that affects you.
Henry Miller
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I am positively against all this crap which is carried on first in the name of this thing, then in the name of that. I believe only in what is active, immediate, and personal.
Henry Miller
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Life is 440 horsepower in a 2-cylinder engine.
Henry Miller
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I didn't have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let's say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing!
Henry Miller
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I had to learn, as I soon did, that one must give up everything and not do anything else but write, that one must writer and write and write, even if everybody in the world advises you against it, even if nobody believes in you.
Henry Miller
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The waking mind, you see, is the least serviceable in the arts.
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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Greece is the home of the gods they may have died but their presence still makes itself felt. The gods were of human proportion: they were created out of the human spirit.
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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Surely every one realizes, at some point along the way, that he is capable of living a far better life than the one he has chosen.
Henry Miller
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The Frenchman is first and foremost a man. He is likeable often just because of his weaknesses, which are always thoroughly human, even if despicable.
Henry Miller
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I see myself forever and ever as the ridiculous man, the lonely soul, the wanderer, the restless frustrated artist, the man in love with love, always in search of the absolute, always seeking the unattainable
Henry Miller
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The sordid qualities imputed to the enemy are always those which we recognize as our own and therefore rise to slay, because only through projection do we realize the enormity and horror of them.
Henry Miller