Henri Bergson Quotes

“A situation is always comic if it participates simultaneously in two series of events which are absolutely independent of each other, and if it can be interpreted in two quite different meanings.”

“Action on the move creates its own route, creates to a very great extent the conditions under which it is to be fulfilled and thus baffles all calculation.”

“Fortunately, some are born with spiritual immune systems that sooner or later give rejection to the illusory worldview grafted upon then from birth through social conditioning. They begin sensing that something is amiss, and start looking for answers. Inner knowledge and anomalous outer experiences show them a side of reality others are oblivious to, and so begins the journey of awakening. Each step of the journey is made by following the heart instead of the crowd, and by choosing knowledge over veils of ignorance.”

“H*mo sapiens, the only creature endowed with reason, is also the only creature to pin its existence on things unreasonable.”

“If reality impacted directly on our senses and our consciousness, if we could have direct communication between the material world and ourselves, art would be unnecessary.”

“Intelligence is characterized by a natural incomprehension of life.”

“Intuition is a method of feeling one's way intellectually into the inner heart of a thing to locate what is unique and inexpressible in it.”

“It is emotion that drives the intelligence forward in spite of obstacles.”

“It is the very essence of intelligence to coordinate means with a view to a remote end, and to undertake what it does not feel absolutely sure of carrying out.”

“Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming cranks.”

“Life does not proceed by the association and addition of elements, but by dissociation and division.”

“Men do not sufficiently realize that their future is in their own hands. Theirs is the task of determining first of all whether they want to go on living or not. Theirs is the responsibility, then, for deciding if they want merely to live, or intend to make just the extra effort required for fulfilling, even on this refractory planet, the essential function of the universe, which is a machine for the making of gods.”

“Only those ideas that are least truly ours can be adequately expressed in words.”

“Sex-appeal is the keynote of our whole civilization.”

“Some other faculty than the intellect is necessary for the apprehension of reality.”

“The eyes see only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”

“The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause.”

“The question is precisely to know whether the past has ceased to exist, or ceased to be useful.”

“There is no greater joy than that of feeling oneself a creator. The triumph of life is expressed by creation.”

“Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.”

“Time is invention and nothing else.”

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”

“We are free when our actions emanate from our total personality, when they express it, when they resemble it in the indefinable way a work of art sometimes does the artist.”

“The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory.”

“Darwin’s theory of evolution pointed to the conclusion that flux (or becoming), not being, is the essence of reality.”

“Europe is overpopulated, the world will soon be in the same condition, and if the self-reproduction of man is not rationalized... we shall have war.”

“The idea of the future, pregnant with an infinity of possibilities, is thus more fruitful than the future itself, and this is why we find more charm in hope than in possession, in dreams than in reality.”