Top 500 Henry Miller Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.”

— Henry Miller

Featured in: Perspective Quotes, Vision Quotes

2. “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

Featured in: Artist Quotes, Longing Quotes, Lonely Quotes

3. “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

Featured in: Medicine Quotes, Fate Quotes

4. “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

Featured in: Fate Quotes

5. “The light of Greece opened my eyes, penetrated my pores, expanded my whole being.”

— Henry Miller

Featured in: Quotes About Light

6. “Don’t look for miracles. You yourself are the miracle.”

— Henry Miller

7. “The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love.”

— Henry Miller

Featured in: Love Quotes

8. “The goal of life is not to possess power but to radiate it.”

— Henry Miller

9. “Every day the choice is presented to us, to live up to the spirit that is in us, or deny it.”

— Henry Miller

Featured in: Choices Quotes

10. “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

Featured in: Quotes About Hope

11. “The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”

— Henry Miller

12. “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

13. “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

Featured in: Book Quotes, Reading Quotes

14. “Work on one thing at a time until finished.”

— Henry Miller

15. “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

16. “At the bottom of every frozen heart there is a drop or two of love – just enough to feed the birds.”

— Henry Miller

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

— Henry Miller

Featured in: Quotes About Money, Contentment Quotes, Determination Quotes

18. “Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.”

— Henry Miller

Featured in: Commitment Quotes

19. “Dedication is not what others expect of you, it is what you can give to others.”

— Henry Miller

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

— Henry Miller

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

— Henry Miller

22. “All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.”

— Henry Miller

23. “True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself.”

— Henry Miller

24. “The real leader has no need to lead – he is content to point the way.”

— Henry Miller

25. “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

26. “What seems nasty, painful, evil can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind.”

— Henry Miller

27. “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

28. “I’m delirious because I’m dying so fast.”

— Henry Miller

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

— Henry Miller

30. “All growth is a leap in the dark.”

— Henry Miller

31. “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

32. “The truly great writer does not want to write: he wants the world to be a place in which he can live the life of the imagination. The first quivering word he puts to paper is the word of the wounded angel: pain.”

— Henry Miller

33. “Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes.”

— Henry Miller

34. “Chaos is the score upon which reality is written.”

— Henry Miller

35. “Develop an Interest in Life as you see it.”

— Henry Miller

36. “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

37. “To paint is to love again, and to love is to live life to the fullest.”

— Henry Miller

38. “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

39. “It was here in Big Sur that I first learned to say ‘amen.’”

— Henry Miller

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

40. “Words are loneliness.”

— Henry Miller

Featured in: Loneliness Quotes

41. “Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring.”

— Henry Miller

42. “When you can’t create you can work.”

— Henry Miller

43. “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

44. “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

45. “I made up my mind that I would hold onto nothing, that I would expect nothing.”

— Henry Miller

46. “There’s nothing wrong with the world. What’s wrong is our way of looking at it.”

— Henry Miller

47. “Writing is its own reward.”

— Henry Miller

48. “It is with the soul that we grasp the essence of another human being, not with the mind, nor even with the heart.”

— Henry Miller

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

— Henry Miller

50. “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