If you haven’t heard about Charles Bukowski, you missed a lot! He is one of America’s best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose. In this article, we have collected 36 most mind bending Charles Bukowski quotes that will make you rethink the way you see life and the society you live in.
Here they are 36 mind-blowing Charles Bukowski quotes!
36 Charles Bukowski Quotes
#1
“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#2
“You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#3
“There is nothing that teaches you more than regrouping
after failure and moving on. Yet most people are stricken with
fear. They fear failure so much that they fail. They are too
conditioned, too used to being told what to do. It begins with
the family, runs through school and goes into the business
world.”
~ Charles Bukowski
#4
“The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship, you don’t have to waste your time voting.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#5
“You’ve to die a few times before you actually live.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#6
“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts. While the stupid ones are full of confidence.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#7
“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must live.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#8
“Those who escape hell however never talk about it and nothing much bothers them after that.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#9
“The less I needed, the better I felt.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#10
“How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 8:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?” ~ Charles Bukowski
#11
“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#12
“The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good when you are near or with them.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#13
“The nine-to-five is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind. You give your life away to a function that doesn’t interest you.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#14
“We must.. We must bring our own light to the darkness.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#15
“Oh, I don’t mean you’re handsome, not the way people think of handsome. Your face seems kind. But your eyes – they’re beautiful. They’re wild, crazy, like some animal peering out of a forest on fire.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#16
“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#17
“People are strange: they are constantly angered by trivial things, but on a major matter like totally wasting their lives, they hardly seem to notice.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#18
“Dogs and angels are not very far apart.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#19
“Beware of those who seek constant crowds; they are nothing alone.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#20
“Do you hate people?”
“I don’t hate them…I just feel better when they’re not around.”
~ Charles Bukowski
#21
“I often carry things to read so that I will not have to look at the people.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#22
“The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little bit more off you, until there was nothing left. At the age of 25, most people were finished. A whole god-damned nation of assholes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for the presidential candidates who reminded them most of themselves. I had no interests. I had no interest in anything. I had no idea how I was going to escape. At least the others had some taste for life. They seemed to understand something that I didn’t understand. Maybe I was lacking. It was possible. I often felt inferior. I just wanted to get away from them. But there was no place to go.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#23
“I wanted the whole world or nothing.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#24
“I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it, I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude, but I was dependent on it. The darkness of the
room was like sunlight to me.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#25
“People run from rain but sit in bathtubs full of water.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#26
“Life’s as kind as you let it be.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#27
“I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#28
“People empty me. I have to get away to refill.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#29
“Nobody can save you but yourself and you’re worth saving. It’s a war not easily won but if anything is worth winning then this is it.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#30
“Beauty is nothing, beauty won’t stay. You don’t know how lucky you are to be ugly, because if people like you, you know it’s for something else.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#31
“If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#32
“So it’s always a process of letting go, one way or another.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#33
“The Laughing Heart
your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.”
~ Charles Bukowski
#34
“Goodness can be found sometimes in the middle of hell.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#35
“It was better for me when I could imagine greatness in others, even if it wasn’t always there.” ~ Charles Bukowski
#36
“Understand me. I’m not like an ordinary world. I have my madness, I live in another dimension and I do not have time for things that have no soul.” ~ Charles Bukowski
We hope you are inspired by these Charles Bukowski quotes as much as we are!
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