Quotes from Black Spring

“Tomorrow you may bring about the destruction of your world. Tomorrow you may sing in Paradise above the smoking ruins of your world-cities. But tonight I would like to think of one man, a lone individual, a man without name or country, a man whom I respect because he has absolutely nothing in common with you - MYSELF. Tonight I shall meditate upon that which I am.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“I used to think then that all the tragic events of life were written down in books and that what went on outside was just diluted crap.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“Up on the Brooklyn Bridge a man is standing in agony, waiting to jump, or waiting to write a poem, or waiting for the blood to leave his vessels because if he advances another foot the pain of his love will kill him.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“the world is the mirror of myself dying.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“Her eyes were so big and bright, as if they saw more than they could comprehend. Bright with terror, and beneath the terror a limitless confusion. That’s what made them so beautifully bright. You have to be crazy to see things so lucidly, so all at once. If you’re great you can stay that way and people will believe in you, swear by you, turn the world upside down for you. But if you’re only partly great, or just a nobody, then what happens to you is lost.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“The dreamers dream from the neck up, their bodies securely strapped to the electric chair. To imagine a new world is to live it daily, each thought, each glance, each step, each gesture killing and recreating, death always a step in advance. To spit on the past is not enough. To proclaim the future is not enough. One must act as if the past were dead and the future unrealizable. One must act as if the next step were the last, which it is. Each step forward is the last, and with it a world dies, one’s self included. We are here of the earth never to end, the past
never ceasing, the future never beginning, the present never ending. The never-never world which we hold in our hands and see and yet is not ourselves. We are that which is never
concluded, never shaped to be recognized, all there is and yet not the whole, the parts so much greater than the whole that only God the mathematician can figure it out.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“I remember that just as I was about to cross the border they asked me what I had to declare and, like an idiot, I answered: "I want to declare that I am a traitor to the human race.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“No more peeping through keyholes! No more mas turbating in the dark! No more public confessions! Unscrew the doors from their jambs! I want a world where the vagina is represented by a crude, honest slit, a world that has feeling for bone and contour, for raw, primary colors, a world that has fear and respect for its animal origins. I’m sick of looking at cunts all tickled up, disguised, deformed, idealized. Cunts with nerve ends exposed. I don’t want to watch young
virgins masturbating in the privacy of their boudoirs or biting their nails or tearing their hair or lying on a bed full of bread crumbs for a whole chapter. I want Madagascan funeral poles, with animal upon animal and at the top Adam and Eve, and Eve with a crude, honest slit between the legs. I want hermaphrodites who are real hermaphrodites, and not make-believes walking around with an atrophied penis or a dried-up cunt. I want a classic purity, where dung is dung and angels are angels. The Bible a la King James, for example. Not the Bible of Wycliffe, not the Vulgate, not the Greek, not the Hebrew, but the glorious, death-dealing Bible that was created when the English
language was in flower, when a vocabulary of twenty thousand words sufficed to build a monument for all time. A Bible written in Svenska or Tegalic, a Bible for the Hottentots or the Chinese, a Bible that has to meander through the trickling sands of French is no Bible-it is a counterfeit and a fraud. The King James Version was created by a race of bone-crushers. It revives the primitive mysteries, revives rape, murder, incest, revives epilepsy, sadism,
megalomania, revives demons, angels, dragons, leviathans, revives magic, exorcism, contagion, incantation, revives fratricide, regicide, patricide, suicide, revives hypnotism, anarchism, somnambulism, revives the song, the dance, the act, revives the mantic, the chthonian, the arcane, the mysterious, revives the power, the evil, and the glory that is God. All brought into the
open on a colossal scale, and so salted and spiced that it will last until the next Ice Age.
A classic purity, then-and to hell with the Post Office authorities! For what is it enables the classics to live at all, if indeed they be living on and not dying as we and all about us are dying? What preserves them against the ravages of time if it be not the salt that is in them? When I read Petronius or Apuleius or Rabelais, how close they seem! That salty tang! That odor of the menagerie! The smell of horse piss and lion’s dung, of tiger’s breath and elephant’s hide. Obscenity, lust, cruelty, boredom, wit. Real eunuchs. Real hermaphrodites. Real pricks. Real cunts. Real banquets! Rabelais rebuilds the walls of Paris with human cunts. Trimalchio tickles his own throat, pukes up his own guts, wallows in his own swill. In the amphitheater, where a big, sleepy pervert of a Caesar lolls dejectedly, the lions and the jackals, the hyenas, the tigers, the spotted leopards are crunching real human boneswhilst the coming men, the martyrs and imbeciles, are walking up the golden stairs shouting Hallelujah!”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“I am a man of the old world, a seed that was transplanted by the wind, a seed which failed to blossom in the mushroom oasis of America. I belong on the heavy tree of the past. My allegiance, physical and spiritual, it is with the men of Europe, those who were once Franks, Gauls, Vikings, Huns, Tatars, what not. The climate for my body and soul is here where there is quickness and corruption. I am proud not to belong in this century.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“For in Mexico, ladies and gentlemen, it's always high noon and what glows is fuchsia and what's dead is dead and no feather-dusters.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“Когато всяко нещо е изтърпяно докрай, няма смърт и няма разкаяние, нито съществува мнима пролет; всеки изживян момент разкрива един още по-обширен и по-необятен хоризонт, от който няма друго спасение, освен да живееш.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“Надо быть сумасшедшим, чтобы видеть вещи так ясно, все разом.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“En la juventud éramos íntegros y el terror y el dolor del mundo nos penetraron por completo. No había una clara separación entre la alegría y la pena: se fundían en una sola cosa, al igual que nuestras horas de lucidez se funden con el sueño y el dormir. Nos levantamos por la mañana siendo unos seres, y por la noche, completamente ahogados, bajamos a un mar empuñando las estrellas y la fiebre del día.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“Always a good dodge to simplify your problem by removing it.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“فمن أجل تذكر الحلم على المرء أن يحافظ على عينيه مغلقتين لا تتزحزحان. إذ تكفي أقل حركة حتى ينهار البناء كله”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“Mắt của cô thật to và sáng, như thể chúng nhìn thấy nhiều hơn chúng có thể hiểu được. Sáng lên với kinh hoàng, và ở bên dưới sự kinh hoàng là sự lúng túng vô bờ bến. Đó là thứ làm cho chúng trông thật sáng. Bạn phải bị điên để nhìn được mọi thứ thật rõ ràng, thật cùng một lúc. Nếu bạn vĩ đại bạn có thể giữ nguyên như thế và người ta sẽ tin vào bạn, sẽ thề bằng tên bạn, sẽ đảo lộn thế giới cho bạn. Nhưng nếu bạn chỉ hơi hơi vĩ đại, hoặc không là gì cả, thì thứ xảy ra với bạn là lạc lối.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“Каждая глава книги, написанная на воздухе, сгущает кровь; её музыка заглушает дикое беспокойство, стоящее в атмосфере. Ночь опускается внезапно, словно раскат грома, укладывает меня прямо на мостовую пешеходной дорожки, в конечном счете ведущей в никуда, но четко размеченной светящимися стрелками, на всем протяжении которых нет ни одного знака остановки и ни одного поворота назад.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“[...] с ледяным джазом в крови [...]”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“Uno pasa imperceptiblemente de una escena, una edad, una vida a otra.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“Y entonces llega un momento en el que, de repente, todo parece del revés. Vivimos en la mente, en ideas, en fragmentos. Ya no nos embebemos más en la salvaje y lejana música de las calles: solamente recordamos.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“Каждый человек - его собственная цивилизованная пустыня, остров самого себя, на котором он терпит кораблекрушение: о счастье, относительном или абсолютном, не может быть и речи.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“Nimalo se, kažem, ne može nauditi velikoj knjizi ako se ponese u zahod. Samo beznačajne knjige trpe zbog toga. Samo beznačajne knjige služe brisanju guzice. Takva je knjiga Mali Cezar koja je sad prevedena na francuski i koja je izišla u biblioteci Passions. Dok okrećem stranice te knjige, čini mi se da sam opet kod kuće i da čitam naslove u novinama, da slušam one proklete radio aparate, da se vozim u starim krntijama, da pijem jeftini džin, da guram kukuruzni klip u dupe prostitutkama djevicama, da vješam Crnce i žive ih spaljujem. Da čovjek dobije sraćku. A to isto vrijedi za Atlantic M o n t h 1 y ili za bilo koji drugi mjesečnik, za Aldousa Huxleyja, Gertrudu Stein, Sinclaria Lewisa, Hemingwaya, Dos Passosa, Dreisera itd, itd... Ne čujem nikakvo zvono da zvoni u meni kad donesem te ptičice u WC. Povučem lančić i odoše u kanal. Niz Seinu pa u Atlantski ocean. Možda će za godinu dana opet izroniti — na obalama Coney Islan-da ili Midland Beacha ili Miamija, s mrtvim meduzama, puževima, račićima, rabljenim prezervativima, ružičastim toaletnim papirom, jučerašnjim novostima, sutrašnjim samoubojstvima ...
str. 58-59”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“И така, загледан в морето и земята, съставляващи човешкия континент, съзирам някои абсурдни, чудовищно образувания, но освен тях и други, които свидетелстват за героични борби. Мога да различа и проследя в дългите виещи се реки загубата на благочинност, вяра и кураж, отклонението от правилния път, постепенното бавно и мъчително изхабяване на душата. Виждам, че границите са отбелязани с широки и груби естествени межди, а също и с променливи като вятъра, тънички и колебливи пунктирани линии. Инстинктивно усещам точно къде ще настъпи климатичното изменение, приемам за неизбежно, че определени плодородни области ще се изтощят и ще пресъхнат, а други пустинно-безводни райони ще процъфтяват. Уверен съм, че митът ще стане реалност в определена фаза на луната и обществени кръгове, и тук-там ще бъде открита известна връзка между непознатите хора, каквито сме били някога, и непознатите хора, каквито сме сега. Убеден съм, че безредието и смешението от миналото ще бъдат отбелязани с предстоящи още по-големи обърквания и безпорядък, че важни са единствено вълненията и хаосът, че трябва коленопреклонно да се възторгнем от тях, да ги въздигнем в култ. Ние, представителите на човешкия род, съдържаме всички елементи, влизащи в състава на земята и въплъщаващи нейната действителна материя, същина и митология, винаги и навсякъде носим в себе си своята променлива география, своя непостоянен климат. Картата на Европа се преобразява пред очите ни; никой не знае къде започва и къде свършва новият континент.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

“Смятам, че ако утре бъдат изобретени и построени апарати, с които ще можем да летим до най-отдалечената звезда, до някои от онези светове, чиято светлина, според собствените ни фатални изчисления, ще достигне до нас много след изстиването на земята, ако утре бъдем транспортирани там в едно още незапочнало време, ще заварим на тази звезда същия ужас, същите страдания, същата лудост и умопомрачение. Вярвам, че ако се приспособим дотолкова добре към ритъма на звездите над нас, та да избегнем чудото на стълкновението, ще успеем също да се нагодим и към съдбата, която бива задействана едновременно тук, там, отвъд земните предели и навсякъде. И следователно тази всеобща съдба не може да бъде избегната, освен ако всички заедно: хора, животни, растения, минерали, камъни, реки, дървета и планини, не пожелаят това – едновременно, тук и там, отвъд земните предели и навсякъде.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Black Spring

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

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