Henri Bergson
Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergsonwas a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century. Bergson convinced many thinkers that the processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth18 October 1859
CountryFrance
art reality order
Art has no other object than to set aside the symbols of practical utility, the generalities that are conventionally and socially accepted, everything in fact which masks reality from us, in order to set us face to face with reality itself.
nature real order
Thus to seek with ready-made concepts to penetrate into the inmost nature of things is to apply to the mobility of the real a method created in order to give stationary points of observation on it. . . .
reality soul realism
Realism is in the work when idealism is in the soul, and it is only through idealism that we resume contact with reality.
laughter real secret
However spontaneous it seems, laughter always implies a kind of secret freemasonry, or even complicity, with other laughers, real or imaginary.
philosophical past reality
In reality, the past is preserved by itself automatically.
heart unique reality
Intuition is a method of feeling one's way intellectually into the inner heart of a thing, in order to locate what is unique and inexpressible in it. If there is a way of grasping a reality in absolute rather than relative terms, of entering into it rather than taking up positions on it, of seizing hold of it without any translation or symbolism, then that way is metaphysics itself.
reality faculty intellect
Some other faculty than the intellect is necessary for the apprehension of reality.
dream reality ideas
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.
art communication reality
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.
action birth cannot centre destined move object
My body, an object destined to move other objects, is, then, a centre of action ; it cannot give birth to a representation.
Sex appeal is the keynote of our civilization.
cure fault french-scientist laughable vanity
The only cure for vanity is laughter, and the only fault that is laughable is vanity.
against consciousness earliest fain follows french-scientist infancy join leaning leave portals present
In its entirety, probably, it follows us at every instant; all that we have felt, thought and willed from our earliest infancy is there, leaning over the present which is about to join it, pressing against the portals of consciousness that would fain leave it outside.
action aspects exactly influence itself lay limits matter measures moment objects occupies organs parts prepare thus virtual
The body, by the place which at each moment it occupies in the universe, indicates the parts and the aspects of matter on which we can lay hold: our perception, which exactly measures our virtual action on things, thus limits itself to the objects which actually influence our organs and prepare our movements.