What an astounding thing is the voice! By what miracle is the hot magma of the earth transformed into that which we call speech? If out of clay such an abstract medium as words can be shaped what is to hinder us from leaving our bodies at will and taking up our abode on other planets or between the planets? What is to prevent us from rearranging all life, atomic, molecular, corporeal, stellar, diving? Who or what is powerful enough to eradicate this miraculous leaven which we bear within us like a seed and which, after we have embraced in our mind all the universe, is nothing more than a seed - since to say universe is as easy as to say seed, and we have yet to say greater things, things beyond saying, things limitless and inconceivable, things which no trick of language can encompass.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Human speech shows our potential to transcend physical limits and reshape reality.
- In plain terms
- Speech proves we can imagine and achieve things beyond our bodies.
- What can you take from it?
- Language unlocks infinite possibilities for human evolution.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What can words not express?
- How does speech shape reality?
Another view
Language is limited by culture and cannot express all truths.
More from Henry Miller
Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything Godlike about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything.
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