Tropic of Cancer

by Henry Miller
United States
26 Dec 1891 // 7 Jun 1980
Writer

Quotes

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Human beings make a strange fauna and flora. From a distance they appear negligible; close up they are apt to appear ugly and malicious. More than anything they need to be surrounded with sufficient space―space even more than time.

Tropic of Cancer
I haven't any allegiance, any responsibilities, any hatreds, any worries, any prejudices, any passion. I'm neither for nor against. I'm a neutral.

Tropic of Cancer
As long as that spark of passion is missing there is no human significance in the performance.

Tropic of Cancer
The cancer of time is eating us away.

Tropic of Cancer
But it's just because the chances are all against you, just because there is so little hope, that life is sweet over here.

Tropic of Cancer
I made up my mind that I would hold onto nothing, that I would expect nothing.

Tropic of Cancer
An artist is always alone - if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness.

Tropic of Cancer
On the meridian of time, there is no injustice: there is only the poetry of motion creating the illusion of truth and drama.

Tropic of Cancer
Do anything, but let it produce joy. Do anything, but let it yield ecstasy.

Tropic of Cancer
I�m an egotist, but I�m not selfish. There�s a difference. I�m a neurotic, I guess. I can�t stop thinking about myself. It isn�t that I think myself so important... I simply can�t think about anything else, that�s all. If I could fall in love with a woman that might help some. But I can�t find a woman who interests me.

Tropic of Cancer
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Tropic of Cancer

Henry Miller

 

On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays