Henri Bergson Quotes
Henri Bergson was a 19th and 20th-century French philosopher, one of the most influential thinkers of the early 20th century and a major figure of continental philosophy in the period between phenomenology's founding and the rise of existentialism. His works Time and Free Will, Matter and Memory, and Creative Evolution developed an account of duration as the fundamental temporal experience and a vitalist philosophy of life as a creative force. The quotes below are attributed to Henri Bergson, organized by topic.
Browse Henri Bergson by topic
Henri Bergson on Death
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“All the living hold together, and all yield to the same tremendous push. The animal takes its stand on the plant , man bestrides animality, and the whole of humanity , in space and in time , is one immense army galloping beside and before and behind each of us in an overwhelming charge able to beat down every resistance and clear the most formidable obstacles, perhaps even death .”
Creative Evolution (1907), Chapter III. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1911, p. 271
Henri Bergson on Freedom
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“The prestige of the Nobel Prize is due to many causes, but in particular to its twofold idealistic and international character: idealistic in that it has been designed for works of lofty inspiration; international in that it is awarded after the production of different countries has been minutely studied and the intellectual balance sheet of the whole world has been drawn up. Free from all other considerations and ignoring any but intellectual values, the judges have deliberately taken their place in what the philosophers have called a community of the mind.”
In a letter accepting the 1927 Nobel Prize in literature , read by the French minister, Armand Bernard.
Henri Bergson on God
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“The universe is a machine for the making of gods.”
Concluding sentences ; often just the last part of the last sentence is quoted, in the form: "The universe is a machine for making gods.
Henri Bergson on Justice
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“Concluding sentences ; often just the last part of the last sentence is quoted, in the form: "The universe is a machine for making gods."”
The Two Sources of Morality and Religion(1932)
Henri Bergson on Knowledge
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“The prestige of the Nobel Prize is due to many causes, but in particular to its twofold idealistic and international character: idealistic in that it has been designed for works of lofty inspiration; international in that it is awarded after the production of different countries has been minutely studied and the intellectual balance sheet of the whole world has been drawn up. Free from all other c”
In a letter accepting the 1927 Nobel Prize in literature , read by the French minister, Armand Bernard. -
“Je dirais qu'il faut agir en homme de pensée et penser en homme d'action.”
I would say act like a man of thought and think like a man of action . Speech at the Descartes Conference in Paris (1937) | Quoted in The Forbes Scrapbook of Thoughts on the Business of Life (1950), p. 442, as " Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. -
“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.”
Quoted in Georgia O'Keeffe, 1887-1986 : Flowers in the Desert (2000) by Britta Benke, p. 28
Henri Bergson on Life
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Attributed to Henri Bergson:
“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”
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Attributed to Henri Bergson:
“Intelligence is characterised by a natural incomprehension of life.”
Henri Bergson on Mind
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“Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.”
Je dirais qu'il faut agir en homme de pensée et penser en homme d'action. -
Attributed to Henri Bergson:
“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”
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“I cannot escape the objection that there is no state of mind , however simple , that does not change every moment .”
An Introduction to Metaphysics (1903), translated by T. E. Hulme . New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1912, p. 44 -
“A philosopher worthy of the name has never said more than a single thing: and even then it is something he has tried to say, rather than actually said. And he has said only one thing because he has seen only one point: and at that it was not so much a vision as a contact... "L’intuition philosophique (Philosophical Intuition)" (10 April 1911); translated by Mabelle L. Andison in: Henri Bergson, The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics , Courier Dover Publications, 2012, p. 91”
Un philosophe digne de ce nom n'a jamais dit qu'une seule chose : encore a-t-il plutôt cherché à la dire qu'il ne l'a dite véritablement. Et il n'a dit qu'une seule chose parce qu'il n'a su qu'un seul point : encore fut-ce moins une vision qu'un contact... -
“I would say act like a man of thought and think like a man of action .”
Speech at the Descartes Conference in Paris (1937)
Henri Bergson on Time
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“The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause.”
Creative Evolution (1907), Chapter I, as translated by Arthur Mitchell (1911), p. 14.; italicized in the original. -
Attributed to Henri Bergson:
“Wherever anything lives, there is, open somewhere, a register in which time is being inscribed.”
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“The spectacle of what religions have been in the past, of what certain religions still are to-day, is indeed humiliating for human intelligence. What a farrago of error and folly!'”
The Two Sources of Morality and Religion(1932) | Chapter II : Static Religion
Things actually not said by Henri Bergson
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Henri Bergson but are in fact from someone else. Did Henri Bergson say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did Henri Bergson say this? No.
“The eyes see only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but the actual source is Robertson Davies as quoted. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Robertson Davies as quoted in The White Bedouin (2007) by George Potter, p. 241