Joseph > Joseph's Quotes

“As the Count leaned over me and his hands touched me, I could not repress a shudder. It may have been that his breath was rank, but a horrible feeling of nausea came over me, which, do what I would, I could not conceal. The Count, evidently noticing it, drew back; and with a grim sort of smile, which showed more than he had yet done his protuberant teeth, sat himself down again on his own side of the fireplace. We were both silent for a while; and as I looked towards the window I saw the first dim streak of the coming dawn. There seemed a strange stillness over everything; but as I listened I heard as if from down below in the valley the howling of many wolves.”
― Bram Stoker, Bram Stoker's Dracula

“The problem, as it was in those days during the war, was overtime. Those in control always preferred to overwork a few men continually, instead of hiring more people so everyone might work less. You gave the boss eight hours, and he always asked for more.
He never sent you home after six hours, for example.
You might have time to think.”
― Charles Bukowski, Factotum

“Was it possible that the salesclerks were more intelligent than the stockclerks? They certainly dressed better. It bothered me that they assumed that their station meant so much. Perhaps if I had been a salesclerk I would have felt the same way. I didn't much care for the other stockclerks. Or the salesclerks.”
― Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye

“All right now, you’ve got a good job. Keep your nose clean and
you’ve got the security the rest of your life.”
Security? You could get security in jail. Three squares and no rent
to pay, no utilities, no income tax, no child support. No license plate
fees. No traffic tickets. No drunk driving raps. No losses at the race
track. Free medical attention. Comradeship with those with similar
interests. Church. Roundeye. Free burial.”
― Charles Bukowski, Post Office

“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I'm not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you've felt that way.”
― Charles Bukowski

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”
― Charles Bukowski

“Real loneliness is not necessarily limited to when you are alone.”
― Charles Bukowski

“Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink.”
― Charles Bukowski

“It was true that I didn’t have much ambition, but there ought to be a place for people without ambition, I mean a better place than the one usually reserved. How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 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, Factotum

“Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now.”
― Charles Bukowski

“Getting fired, despite sometimes coming as a surprise and leaving you scrambling to recover, is often a godsend. Most people aren’t lucky enough to get fired and die a slow spiritual death over 30-40 years of tolerating the mediocre.”
― Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek

“I want, what they want, and every other guy who came over here and spilled his guts and gave everything he had, wants! For our country to love us as much as we love it! That's what I want!”
― Rambo

“What do you think of Reagan and unemployment?"
"I don't think of Reagan or unemployment. It all bores me. Like space flights and the Super Bowl.”
― Charles Bukowski, Hot Water Music

“I must to the barber's, mounsieur; for methinks I am     marvellous hairy about the face; and I am such a tender ass, if     my hair do but tickle me I must scratch.”
― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

“Nay, church itself is a sort of whale; the pulpit is its spout-hole. … What other marvels does whale’s oil accomplish? Not only candles and lamps are supplied by it, but churches themselves are lit up with it. Yes, in St. Paul’s Cathedral, and in all the most splendid churches in Christendom, whale-oil candles burn before the altar.”
― Melville Herman, Moby Dick

“Keep it always with you that laughter who knock at your door and say, 'May I come in?' is not the true laughter. No! he is a king, and he come when and how he like. He ask no person; he choose no time of suitability. He say, 'I am here.' ... Oh, friend John, it is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles; and yet when King Laugh come he make them all dance to the tune he play. Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and tears that burn as they fall - all dance together to the music that he make with that smileless mouth of him. And believe me, friend John, that he is good to come, and kind. Ah, we men and women are like ropes drawn tight with strain that pull us different ways. Then tears come; and, like the rain on the ropes, they brace us up, until perhaps the strain become too great, and we break. But King Laugh he come like the sunshine, and he ease off the strain again; and we bear to go on with our labour, what it may be.”
― Bram Stoker, Dracula

“To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books.”
― Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages