..the monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses. For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured- disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui- in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable. And all the while a meter is running inside and there is no hand that can reach in there and shut it off. Henry Miller
About This Quote

The writer, Albert Camus, was not being so pessimistic as he put it. Instead, he was speaking about the nature of the human condition. He was saying that we all do what we can to make our lives tolerable even though we know that all such efforts will only ever be temporary. And yet we continue to make such efforts anyway because we want to believe that there is a way out of this state of misery and absurdity.

Source: Tropic Of Cancer

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More Quotes By Henry Miller
  1. What's a fuck when what I want is love?
  2. Let me be, was all I wanted. Be what I am, no matter how I am.
  3. 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.
  4. The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.
  5. Everyone has his own reality in which, if one is not too cautious, timid or frightened, one swims. This is the only reality there is.
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