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Words are made for a certain exactness of thought, as tears are for a certain degree of pain. What is least distinct cannot be named; what is clearest is unutterable.

— René Daumal A Night of Serious Drinking (1938)

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More quotes by René Daumal

Art has a double face, of expression and illusion, just like science has a double face: the reality of error and the phantom of truth.

The Lie of the Truth (1938)

Each time dawn appears, the mystery is there in its entirety.

You cannot always stay on the summits. You have to come down again . . .

Mount Analogue (1952)

These are no doubt more methodical and complete, but are intelligible only after a little preliminary experience. The entire aim of these notes is to help the beginner acquire this preliminary experience a little faster.

Truth is one, but error proliferates. Man tracks it down and cuts it up into little pieces hoping to turn it into grains of truth. But the ultimate atom will always essentially be an error, a miscalculation.

The Lie of the Truth (1938)

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

Strength of creative writing lies in the skill of handling words and articulating artistic expression of feelings.”

Suman Pokhrel

The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.

Robert Benchley

Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on,
Through words and things, a dim and perilous way.

William Wordsworth Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: René Daumal (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.