Henry Miller (1891-1980), a pivotal US writer known for his candid autobiographical novels significantly influenced mid-20th-century literature with his refreshing honesty and comedic talent.
Born and raised in New York, Miller later moved to Paris, crafting works that mirrored his life in both cities.
His bold narratives, which often explored both sublime and degrading experiences, were initially banned due to their explicit content but became celebrated for their liberating qualities.
Settling in California, Miller continued writing and painting, leaving behind a legacy appreciated by many, including the Beat generation. Various collections of his correspondence have also been published.
I have listed below some of the best quotes by Henry Miller.
Best Henry Miller Quotes
I read to be taken out of myself, to become ecstatic. ~ Henry Miller.
Words are loneliness. ~ Henry Miller.
To be joyous is to be a madman in a world of sad ghosts. ~ Henry Miller.
You have to write a million words before you find your voice as a writer. ~ Henry Miller.
The world is the mirror of myself dying. ~ Henry Miller.
There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy. ~ Henry Miller.
I’m delirious because I’m dying so fast. ~ Henry Miller.
There’s nothing wrong with the world. What’s wrong is our way of looking at it. ~ Henry Miller.
The world is not to be put in order. The world is order. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order. ~ Henry Miller.
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.
Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate, or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. ~ Henry Miller.
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.
There are only three things to be done with a woman. You can love her, suffer for her, or turn her into literature. ~ Henry Miller.
Famous Henry Miller Quotes
Even the idiot may have a message for us. ~ Henry Miller.
We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there. ~ Henry Miller.
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.
Every day the choice is presented to us, to live up to the spirit that is in us, or deny it. ~ Henry Miller.
If you can fall in love again and again if you can forgive as well as forget, if you can keep from growing sour, surly, bitter and cynical you’ve got it half licked. ~ Henry Miller.
The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. ~ Henry Miller.
The dreamer whose dreams are non-utilitarian has no place in this world. In this world the poet is anathema, the thinker a fool, the artist an escapist, the man of vision a criminal. ~ Henry Miller.
What seems nasty, painful, evil can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. ~ Henry Miller.
The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware. ~ Henry Miller.
Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life. ~ Henry Miller.
Great Henry Miller Quotes
True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself. ~ Henry Miller.
I need you as the one luminous point in my madness. ~ Henry Miller.
Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. ~ Henry Miller.
Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such. ~ Henry Miller.
Of course you don’t die. Nobody dies. Death doesn’t exist. You only reach a new level of vision, a new realm of consciousness, a new unknown world. ~ Henry Miller.
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.
All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience. ~ Henry Miller.
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.
I have always looked upon decay as being just as wonderful and rich an expression of life as growth. ~ Henry Miller.
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.
Without a Coca-Cola life is unthinkable. ~ Henry Miller.
Top Henry Miller Quotes
If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having. ~ Henry Miller.
We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate. ~ Henry Miller.
The real leader has no need to lead – he is content to point the way. ~ Henry Miller.
Let me be, was all I wanted. Be what I am, no matter how I am. ~ Henry Miller.
It is silly to go on pretending that under the skin we are brothers. The truth is more likely that under the skin we are all cannibals, assassins, traitors, liars and hypocrites. ~ Henry Miller.
Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring. ~ Henry Miller.
We must be holy without holiness. We must be whole, complete. That’s being holy. Any other kind of holiness is false, a snare, and a delusion. ~ Henry Miller.
Don’t look for miracles. You yourself are the miracle. ~ Henry Miller.
The goal of life is not to possess power but to radiate it. ~ Henry Miller.
If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller.
Popular Henry Miller Quotes
Let me be, was all I wanted. Be what I am, no matter how I am. ~ Henry Miller.
It was here in Big Sur that I first learned to say ‘amen.’ ~ Henry Miller.
Until we lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves. ~ Henry Miller.
The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love. ~ Henry Miller.
I have found God, but he is insufficient. ~ Henry Miller.
As long as that spark of passion is missing there is no human significance in the performance. ~ Henry Miller.
When spring comes to Paris the humblest mortal alive must feel that he dwells in paradise. ~ Henry Miller.
On the meridian of time, there is no injustice: there is only the poetry of motion creating the illusion of truth and drama. ~ Henry Miller.
Chaos is the score upon which reality is written. ~ Henry Miller.
A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum. ~ Henry Miller.
In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance. ~ Henry Miller.
Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood. ~ Henry Miller.
To paint is to love again, and to love is to live life to the fullest. ~ Henry Miller.
Writing is its own reward. ~ Henry Miller.
Powerful Henry Miller Quotes
I made up my mind that I would hold onto nothing, that I would expect nothing. ~ Henry Miller.
Everybody says sex is obscene. The only true obscenity is war. ~ Henry Miller.
I adored you. You were so soft, so diabolically angelic looking. ~ Henry Miller.
Music is the can-opener of the soul. ~ Henry Miller.
Develop an Interest in Life as you see it. ~ Henry Miller.
The light of Greece opened my eyes, penetrated my pores, expanded my whole being. ~ Henry Miller.
I soon found out you can’t change the world. The best you can do is to learn to live with it. ~ Henry Miller.
Cluster together like stars! ~ Henry Miller.
An artist is always alone – if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness. ~ Henry Miller.
Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him. ~ Henry Miller.
All growth is a leap in the dark. ~ Henry Miller.
Destiny is what you are supposed to do in life. Fate is what kicks you in the ass to make you do it. ~ Henry Miller.
I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive. ~ Henry Miller.
Work on one thing at a time until finished. ~ Henry Miller.
Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything godlike about God, it is that. He dared to imagine everything. ~ Henry Miller.
Hope is a bad thing. It means that you are not what you want to be. It means that part of you is dead, if not all of you. It means that you entertain illusions. It’s a sort of spiritual clap, I should say. ~ Henry Miller.
Dedication is not what others expect of you, it is what you can give to others. ~ Henry Miller.
To make living itself an art, that is the goal. ~ Henry Miller.
One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things. ~ Henry Miller.
At the bottom of every frozen heart there is a drop or two of love – just enough to feed the birds. ~ Henry Miller.
So these were the 83 top Henry Miller quotes and sayings about life, love, art and writing.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Honore de Balzac quotes and Howard Zinn quotes.
