Quotes from The Dharma Bums

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“It all ends in tears anyway.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said, "God, I love you" and looked to the sky and really meant it. "I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other." To the children and the innocent it's all the same.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all. The woods do that to you, they always look familiar, long lost, like the face of a long-dead relative, like an old dream, like a piece of forgotten song drifting across the water, most of all like golden eternities of past childhood or past manhood and all the living and the dying and the heartbreak that went on a million years ago and the clouds as they pass overhead seem to testify (by their own lonesome familiarity) to this feeling.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“Happy. Just in my swim shorts, barefooted, wild-haired, in the red fire dark, singing, swigging wine, spitting, jumping, running—that's the way to live. All alone and free in the soft sands of the beach by the sigh of the sea out there, with the Ma-Wink fallopian virgin warm stars reflecting on the outer channel fluid belly waters. And if your cans are redhot and you can't hold them in your hands, just use good old railroad gloves, that's all.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“One man practicing kindness in the wilderness is worth all the temples this world pulls.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“Finding Nirvana is like locating silence.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“Pain or love or danger makes you real again....”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“Are we fallen angels who didn't want to believe that nothing is nothing and so were born to lose our loved ones and dear friends one by one and finally our own life, to see it proved?”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“The closer you get to real matter, rock air fire and wood, boy, the more spiritual the world is.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“colleges being nothing but grooming schools for the middle-class non-identity which usually finds its perfect expression on the outskirts of the campus in rows of well-to-do houses with lawns and television sets in each living room with everybody looking at the same thing and thinking the same thing at the same time while the Japhies of the world go prowling in the wilderness to hear the voice crying in the wilderness, to find the ecstacy of the stars, to find the dark mysterious secret of the origin of faceless wonderless crapulous civilization.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“Let the mind beware, that though the flesh be bugged, the circumstances of existence are pretty glorious.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“The silence was an intense roar.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“Aw I don't wanta go to no such thing, I just wanta drink in alleys.'...
But you'll miss all that, just for some old wine.'
There's wisdom in wine, goddam it!' I yelled. 'Have a shot!”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of 'em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures ...”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“my karma was to be born in America where nobody has any fun or believes in anything, especially freedom.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“The human bones are but vain lines dawdling, the whole universe a blank mold of stars.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“I don't wanta hear all your word descriptions of words words words you made up all winter, man I wanta be enlightened by actions.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“Who can leap the world's ties and sit with me among white clouds?”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“Jumping from boulder to boulder and never falling, with a heavy pack, is easier than it sounds; you just can't fall when you get into the rhythm of the dance.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“I think it's a lovely hallucination but I love it sorta.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“It was all completely serious, all completely hallucinated, all completely happy.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“i wish the whole world was dead serious about food instead of silly rockets and machines and explosives using everybody's food money to blow their heads off anyway.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“Mind is the Maker, for no reason at all, for all this creation, created to fall.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“Suppose we suddenly wake up and see that what we thought to be this and that, ain't this and that at all?”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“Rocks are space, and space is illusion.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“The first sip [of tea] is joy, the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“The yard was full of tomato plants about to ripen, and mint, mint, everything smelling of mint, and one fine old tree that I loved to sit under on those cool perfect starry California October nights unmatched anywhere in the world.”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

“I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from The Dharma Bums

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“You wanted Death? This is it. Dirt and decay, nothing more. Death translates us all into earth.” He frowned at me, his cheeks puffing slightly. “Are you disappointed? Did you want a man in black robes? I’m sure I’ve a set somewhere. A dour, thin face with bony hands? I’ve more bones in this house than you could ever count. You’ve been moping over half the world looking for Death as though that word meant anything but cold bodies and mushrooms growing out of young girls’ eye-sockets. What an exceptionally stupid child!” Suddenly he moved very fast, like a turtle after a spider—such unexpected movement from a thing so languid and round. He clapped my throat in his hand, squeezing until I could not breathe…I whistled and wheezed, beating at his chest, and my vision blurred, thick as blood. “You want Death?” he hissed. “I am Death. I will break your neck and cover you with my jar of dirt. When you kill, you become Death, and so Death wears a thousand faces, a thousand robes, a thousand gazes.” He loosened his grip. “But you can be Death, too. You can wear that face and that gaze. Would you like to be Death? Would you like to live in this house and learn his trade?”
― Catherynne M. Valente, quote from In the Night Garden

“while enthusiasm may be necessary for great accomplishments elsewhere, on Wall Street it almost invariably leads to disaster.”
― Benjamin Graham, quote from The Intelligent Investor

“Dr. Ransome marked the exercises in the algebra textbook and gave him two strips of rice-paper bandage on which to solve the simultaneous equations. As he stood up, Dr. Ransome removed the three tomatoes from Jim's pocket. He laid them on the table by the wax tray.
'Did they come from the hospital garden?'
'Yes.' Jim gazed back frankly at Dr. Ransome. Recently he had begun to see him with a more adult eye. The long years of imprisonment, the constant disputes with the Japanese had made this young physician seem middle-aged. Dr. Ransome was often unsure of himself, as he was of Jim's theft.
'I have to give Basie something whenever I see him.'
'I know. It's a good thing that you're friends with Basie. He's a survivor, though survivors can be dangerous. Wars exist for people like Basie.' Dr. Ransome placed the tomatoes in Jim's hand. 'I want you to eat them, Jim. I'll get you something for Basie.”
― J.G. Ballard, quote from Empire of the Sun

“But people didn't forgive you for doing what felt right-that was the last thing they forgave you for.”
― Chad Harbach, quote from The Art of Fielding

“A shaft of moonlight illuminated a row of sentinel silver birch in a phosphorescent glow, appearing almost ethereal in the relative surrounding gloom. Boris had stopped again, his silhouette a stark black juxtaposition against the background of illuminated branches.”
― quote from The Elephant Tree

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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.

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