René Daumal - A Night of Serious Drinking (1938)

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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

Common experience is the gold reserve which confers an exchange value on the currency which words are; without this reserve of shared experiences, all our pronouncements are cheques drawn on insufficient funds.

René Daumal

It is still not enough for language to have clarity and content … it must also have a goal and an imperative. Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble and from babble to confusion.

René Daumal

Philosophy teaches how man thinks he thinks; but drinking shows how he really thinks.

René Daumal

I know everything, but I don't understand any of it.

René Daumal