Top 450 Henry Miller Quotes (2023 Update)
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151. “The most wonderful opportunity which life offers is to be human.”

— Henry Miller

152. “We do not talk – we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests.”

— Henry Miller

153. “We create our fate everyday.”

— Henry Miller

154. “Why change the world? Change worlds!”

— Henry Miller

155. “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

156. “Example moves the world more than doctrine.”

— Henry Miller

157. “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

158. “My world of human beings had perished. I was utterly alone in the world and for friends I had the streets, and the streets spoke to me in that sad, bitter language compounded of human misery, yearning, regret, failure, wasted effort.”

— Henry Miller

159. “Life is constantly providing us with new funds, new resources, even when we are reduced to immobility. In life’s ledger there is no such thing as frozen assets.”

— Henry Miller

160. “Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.”

— Henry Miller

161. “The best technique is none at all.”

— Henry Miller

162. “If one believes, then miracles occur.”

— Henry Miller

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

— Henry Miller

164. “I am living at the Villa Borghese. There is not a crumb of dirt anywhere, nor a chair misplaced. We are all alone here and we are dead.”

— Henry Miller

165. “The history of the world is the history of the privileged few.”

— Henry Miller

166. “To know Paris is to know a great deal.”

— Henry Miller

167. “Next to love friendship, in my opinion, is the most valuable thing life has to offer.”

— Henry Miller

168. “Do anything, but let it produce joy. Do anything, but let it yield ecstasy.”

— Henry Miller

169. “Life is 440 horsepower in a 2-cylinder engine.”

— Henry Miller

170. “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

171. “To have her here in bed with me, breathing on me, her hair in my mouth – I count that something of a miracle.”

— Henry Miller

172. “Think only what is right there, what is right under your nose to do. It’s such a simple thing – that’s why people can’t do it.”

— Henry Miller

173. “A world without hope, but no despair.”

— Henry Miller

174. “Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack. We give it orders which make no sense.”

— Henry Miller

175. “The purpose of life is to remember.”

— Henry Miller

176. “Many is the mirage I chased. Always I was overreaching myself. The oftener I touched reality, the harder I bounced back to the world of illusion, which is the name for everyday life.”

— Henry Miller

177. “I have made a silent compact with myself not to change a line of what I write. I am not interested in perfecting my thoughts, nor my actions.”

— Henry Miller

178. “I feel that America is essentially against the artist, that the enemy of America is the artist, because he stands for individuality and creativeness, and that’s un-American somehow.”

— Henry Miller

179. “The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself. All that you despise, all that you loathe, all that you reject, all that you condemn and seek to convert by punishment springs from you.”

— Henry Miller

180. “Everyman, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths.”

— Henry Miller

181. “You are always laughing at the wrong moment; you are considered cruel and heartless when in reality you are only tough and durable. But if you would laugh when others laugh and weep when they weep then you must be prepared to die as they die and live as they live.”

— Henry Miller

182. “We don’t trust our five senses; we rely on our critics and educators, all of whom are failures in the realm of creation.”

— Henry Miller

183. “I believe in saying the truth, coming out with it cold, shocking if necessary, not disguising it.”

— Henry Miller

184. “All my Calvaries were rosy crucifixions, pseudo-tragedies to keep the fires of hell burning brightly for the real sinners who are in danger of being forgotten.”

— Henry Miller

185. “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

186. “Your nearness is the nearness of planets. I am the void between you. If I withdraw there will be no void for you to swim in.”

— Henry Miller

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

— Henry Miller

188. “Understanding is not a piercing of the mystery, but an acceptance of it, a living blissfully with it, in it, through and by it.”

— Henry Miller

189. “Were there a Christian so faithful to his God as I was to her we would all be Jesus Christ today.”

— Henry Miller

190. “Thyroid eyes. Michelin lips. Voice like pea soup.”

— Henry Miller

191. “The real enemy can always be met and conquered, or won over. Real antagonism is based on love, a love which has not recognized itself.”

— Henry Miller

192. “We create our fate every day that we live.”

— Henry Miller

193. “I am of the order whose purpose is not to teach the world a lesson but to explain that school is over.”

— Henry Miller

194. “Every man with a bellyful of the classics is an enemy to the human race.”

— Henry Miller

195. “Whatever needs to be maintained through force is doomed.”

— Henry Miller

196. “To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs, and a little knowledge of music. It is not necessary to have an accordion, or a guitar. The essential thing is to want to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.”

— Henry Miller

197. “I am so thoroughly healthy and empty. No dreams, no desires. I am like the luscious deceptive fruit which hangs on the Californian trees. One more ray of sun and I will be rotten.”

— Henry Miller

198. “For her were meant those terrible words of Louis-Philippe, “and a night comes when all is over, when so many jaws have closed upon us that we no longer have the strength to stand, and our meat hangs upon our bodies, as though it had been masticated by every mouth.”

— Henry Miller

199. “Who hates the Jews more than the Jew?”

— Henry Miller

200. “After all, most writing is done away from the typewriter, away from the desk. I’d say it occurs in the quiet, silent moments, while you’re walking or shaving or playing a game, or whatever, or even talking to someone you’re not vitally interested in.”

— Henry Miller