Henri Bergson Quotes

A collection of quotes by Henri Bergson.

Henri Bergson (1859-1941) was a French philosopher and writer, known for his influential theories on time, consciousness, and the nature of reality. Born in Paris, he initially studied mathematics and later turned his attention to philosophy. Bergson's work explored the creative process and the importance of intuition in understanding the world.

In 1900, he published his most renowned work, "Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness," which challenged the prevailing scientific view that time was a mere measurement. Bergson argued that time was a subjective experience, inseparable from personal consciousness. This perspective deeply influenced fields such as psychology, literature, and art.

Bergson won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927 for his philosophical writings, particularly his book "Creative Evolution" (1907). In this work, he proposed a theory of evolution based on the idea of a vital force, or Ã©lan vital, which drives the process of life. He claimed that evolution is guided by a creative impulse that surpasses mechanistic explanations.

Throughout his career, Bergson engaged in debates with other prominent philosophers of the time, including William James and Bertrand Russell. His philosophical ideas had a profound impact on thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

Henri Bergson's writings continue to inspire philosophical discourse and have a lasting legacy in fields beyond philosophy, shaping our understanding of time, consciousness, and the complexities of human experience.

The idea of the future, pregnant with an infinity of possibi

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.

Time Hope Dream

We regard intelligence as man's main characteristic and we k

We regard intelligence as man's main characteristic and we know that there is no superiority which intelligence cannot confer on us, no inferiority for which it cannot compensate.

Intelligence

Religion is to mysticism what popularization is to science.

Religion is to mysticism what popularization is to science.

Religion

Intelligence is the faculty of making artificial objects, es

Intelligence is the faculty of making artificial objects, especially tools to make tools.

Intelligence

Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.

Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.

Action(s)

The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is

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

Past

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

Mind

To perceive means to immobilize... we seize, in the act of p

To perceive means to immobilize... we seize, in the act of perception, something which outruns perception itself.

Perception

There is no greater joy than that of feeling oneself a creat

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

Happiness

Spirit borrows from matter the perceptions on which it feeds

Spirit borrows from matter the perceptions on which it feeds and restores them to matter in the form of movements which it has stamped with its own freedom.

Spirituality

You will obtain a vision of matter that is perhaps fatiguing

You will obtain a vision of matter that is perhaps fatiguing for your imagination, but pure and stripped of what the requirements of life make you add to it in external perception.

Imagination

An absolute can only be given in an intuition, while all the

An absolute can only be given in an intuition, while all the rest has to do with analysis. We call intuition here the sympathy by which one is transported into the interior of an object in order to coincide with what there is unique andconsequently inexpressible in it. Analysis, on the contrary, is the operation which reduces the object to elements already known.

Analysis

Instinct perfected is a faculty of using and even constructi

Instinct perfected is a faculty of using and even constructing organized instruments intelligence perfected is the faculty of making and using unorganized instruments.

Intelligence

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is

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

Change

In just the same way the thousands of successive positions o

In just the same way the thousands of successive positions of a runner are contracted into one sole symbolic attitude, which our eye perceives, which art reproduces, and which becomes for everyone the image of a man who runs.

Attitude