Rachel > Rachel's Quotes

“[...]the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

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

“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry.”
― Jack Kerouac

“There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll

“My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.”
― Jack Kerouac

“Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together; sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk — real straight talk about souls, for life is holy and every moment is precious.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.”
― Jack Kerouac

“The best teacher is experience and not through someone's distorted point of view”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference.”
― Jack Kerouac

“My witness is the empty sky.”
― Jack Kerouac

“What's in store for me in the direction I don't take?”
― Jack Kerouac

“I have lots of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina on a cold winter moonlit night. It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don't worry. It's all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don't know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever. Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky way soft cloud innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect. We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere: Self is only an idea, a mortal idea. That which passes into everything is one thing. It's a dream already ended. There's nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be glad about. I know this from staring at mountains months on end. They never show any expression, they are like empty space. Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away? Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space, which is the one universal essence of mind, the vast awakenerhood, empty and awake, will never crumble away because it was never born.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Portable Jack Kerouac

“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, The Dharma Bums

“Will you love me in December as you do in May?”
― Jack Kerouac

“I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.”
― Jack Kerouac

“My whole wretched life swam before my weary eyes, and I realized no matter what you do it's bound to be a waste of time in the end so you might as well go mad.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll

“Life must be rich and full of loving--it's no good otherwise, no good at all, for anyone.”
― Jack Kerouac, Selected Letters, 1940-1956

“It always makes me proud to love the world somehow- hate's so easy compared.”
― Jack Kerouac, Big Sur

“We turned at a dozen paces, for love is a duel, and looked at each other for the last time.”
― Jack Kerouac

“On soft Spring nights I'll stand in the yard under the stars - Something good will come out of all things yet - And it will be golden and eternal just like that - There's no need to say another word.”
― Jack Kerouac, Big Sur

“Offer them what they secretly want and they of course immediately become panic-stricken.”
― Jack Kerouac

“Don't touch me, I'm full of snakes.”
― Jack Kerouac

“But why think about that when all the golden lands ahead of you and all kinds of unforseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“Things are so hard to figure out when you live from day to day in this feverish and silly world. ”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll

“They build their own Hells.”
― Jack Kerouac

“This is the story of America. Everybody's doing what they think they're supposed to do.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll

“What do you want out of life?" I asked, and I used to ask that all the time of girls.
I don't know," she said. "Just wait on tables and try to get along." She yawned. I put my hand over her mouth and told her not to yawn. I tried to tell her how excited I was about life and the things we could do together; saying that, and planning to leave Denver in two days. She turned away wearily. We lay on our backs, looking at the ceiling and wondering what God had wrought when He made life so sad.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“There are worse things than being mad.”
― Jack Kerouac

“So therefore I dedicate myself, to my art, my sleep, my dreams, my labors, my suffrances, my loneliness, my unique madness, my endless absorption and hunger because I cannot dedicate myself to any fellow being.”
― Jack Kerouac

“Roaring dreams take place in a perfectly silent mind. Now that we know this, throw the raft away.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Scripture of the Golden Eternity