Henry Miller

Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to enduring fact of mystery.

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

Nobody can feel better than the man who is completely taken in. To be intelligent may be a boon, but to be completely trusting, gulible to the point of idiocy, to surrender without reservation, is one of the supreme joys of life.

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.

Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack.

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

To live without killing is a thought which could electrify the world, if men were only capable of staying awake long enough to let the idea soak in.

What does it matter how one comes by the truth so long as one pounces upon it and lives by it?

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

One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.

Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.

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

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

In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.

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.

We must not just be in the world and above the world, but also of the world. To love it for what it is... is the only task. Avoid it and you are lost. Loose yourself in it, and you are free.

I have no money, no resources, and no hope. I am the happiest man alive.

The thing is to become a master and in your old age to acquire the courage to do what children did when they knew nothing.

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.

Living apart and at peace with myself, I came to realize more vividly the meaning of the doctrine of acceptance. To refrain from giving advice, to refrain from meddling in the affairs of others, to refrain, even though the motives be the highest, from tampering with another's way of life - so simple, yet so difficult for an active spirit. Hands off!

When shit becomes valuable, the poor will be born without assholes.