Quotes from Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

“Which way will the sunflower turn surrounded by millions of suns?”
― Allen Ginsberg, quote from Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

“America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb”
― Allen Ginsberg, quote from Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

“The weight of the world       is love. Under the burden       of solitude, under the burde       of dissatisfaction    the weight, the weight we carry       is love.”
― Allen Ginsberg, quote from Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

“No rest       without love, no sleep       without dreams of love—       be mad or chill obsessed with angels       or machines, the final wish       is love —cannot be bitter,       cannot deny, cannot withhold       if denied:     the weight is too heavy”
― Allen Ginsberg, quote from Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

“The grime was no man’s grime but death and human locomotives,
all that dress of dust, that veil of darkened railroad skin, that smog of cheek, that eyelid of black mis’ry, that sooty hand or phallus or protuberance of artificial worse-than-dirt—industrial—modern—all that civilization spotting your crazy golden crown—
and those blear thoughts of death and dusty loveless eyes and ends and withered roots below, in the home-pile of sand and sawdust, rubber dollar bills, skin of machinery, the guts and innards of the weeping coughing car, the empty lonely tincans with their rusty tongues alack, what more could I name, the smoked ashes of some cock cigar, the cunts of wheelbarrows and the milky breasts of cars, wornout asses out of chairs & sphincters of dynamos—all these
entangled in your mummied roots—and you there standing before me in the sunset, all your glory in your form!”
― Allen Ginsberg, quote from Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

“No point writing when the spirit doth not lead.”
― Allen Ginsberg, quote from Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked... who wandered around and around at midnight in the railroad yard wondering where to go, and went, leaving no broken hearts...”
― Allen Ginsberg, quote from Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

“Money has reckoned the soul of America 
Congress broken thru to the precipice of Eternity 
the president built a War machine which will vomit and rear up Russia out of Kansas 
The American Century betrayed by a mad Senate which no longer sleeps with its wife

- Death to Van Gogh's Ear!”
― Allen Ginsberg, quote from Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

“fortunately all governments will fall
the only ones which won't fall are the good ones
and the good ones don't yet exist”
― Allen Ginsberg, quote from Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

“The message is: Widen the area of consciousness.”
― Allen Ginsberg, quote from Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

“We're not our skin of grime, we're not our dread bleak dusty imageless locomotive, we're all beautiful golden sunflowers inside”
― Allen Ginsberg, quote from Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems

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Popular quotes

“Tonio Treschi was that half man, that less than man that arouses the contempt of every whole man who looks upon it. Tonio Treschi was that thing which women cannot leave alone and men find infinitely disturbing, frightening, pathetic, the butt of jokes and endless bullying, the necessary evil of the church choirs and the opera stage which is, outside that artifice and grace and soaring music, very simply monstrous.”
― Anne Rice, quote from Cry to Heaven

“Authority is a solvent of humanity: look at any husband, any father of a family, and note the absorption of the person by the persona, the individual by the role. Then multiply the family, and the authority, by some hundreds and see the effect upon a sea-captain, to say nothing of an absolute monarch. Surely man in general is born to be oppressed or solitary, if he is to be fully human; unless it so happens that he is immune to the poison.”
― Patrick O'Brian, quote from H.M.S. Surprise

“They were Archer's second set of children an d paragons of contemporary teenage cynicism. They enjoyed setting fire to the tails of tender thoughts.”
― Tom Wolfe, quote from I am Charlotte Simmons

“It was a gringo; in the remote corners of the world the short-sleeved flowered tourist shirt, the steel-rimmed glasses, khaki pants and bulldog shoes had become the uniform of earnest American enterprise. Moon recognized the man as the new missionary. His head was cropped too close, so that his white skull gleamed, and the red skin of his neck and jaw was riddled with old acne; his face was bald with anxiety and tiresome small agonies.”
― Peter Matthiessen, quote from At Play in the Fields of the Lord

“For the possession of what we love is an even greater joy than love itself.”
― Marcel Proust, quote from The Captive & The Fugitive

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About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.