Vidya > Vidya's Quotes

“Waste of time," said the leper. "There's a dozen or more beggars who come here every day, pretending to be cripples, hiring themselves out to the holy men. A couple of drachmas and they'll swear they've been crippled or blind for years then stage a bloody miraculous recovery. Holy men? Healers? Don't make me laugh."
"But this man is different," said Christ.
"I remember him," said the blind man. "Jesus. He come here on the sabbath, like a fool. The priests wouldn't let him heal anyone on sabbath. He should've known that."
"But he did heal someone," said the lame man. "Old Hiram. You remember that. He told him to take up his bed and walk."
"Bloody rubbish," said the blind man. "Hiram went as far as the temple gate, then he lay down and went on begging. Old Sarah told me. He said what was the use of taking his living away? Begging was the only thing he knew how to do. You and your blether about goodness," he said, turning to Christ, "where's the goodness in throwing an old man out into the street without a trade, without a home, without a penny? Eh? That Jesus is asking too much of people."
"But he was good," said the lame man. "I don't care what you say. You could feel it, you could see it in his eyes."
"I never saw it," said the blind man.”
― Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

“I was surprised, as always, by how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

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

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

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

“I'm going to marry my novels and have little short stories for children.”
― Jack Kerouac

“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, The Dharma Bums

“And the story of love is a long sad tale ending in graves.”
― Jack Kerouac

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“I'm writing this book because we're all going to die.”
― Kerouac, Jack

“As I grew older I became a drunk. Why? Because I like ecstasy of the mind.”
― Jack Kerouac

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

“They have worries, they're counting the miles, they're thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they'll get there - and all the time they'll get there anyway, you see.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll

“I saw that my life was a vast glowing empty page and I could do anything I wanted.”
― Jack Kerouac

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

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

“Sal, we gotta go and never stop going 'till we get there.'
'Where we going, man?'
'I don't know but we gotta go.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“because he had no place he could stay in without getting tired of it and because there was nowhere to go but everywhere, keep rolling under the stars...”
― 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

“As far as I'm concerned the only thing to do is sit in a room and get drunk”
― Jack Kerouac

“I feel guilty for being a member of the human race.”
― Jack Kerouac, Big Sur

“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

“Maybe that's what life is... a wink of the eye and winking stars. ”
― Jack Kerouac, Selected Letters, 1940-1956

“[...]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

“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

“But, outside of being a sweet little girl, she was awfully dumb and capable of doing horrible things.”
― Jack Kerouac

“They build their own Hells.”
― Jack Kerouac

“the road is life”
― jack kerouac

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

“My aunt once said that the world would never find peace until men fell at their women's feet and asked for forgiveness. ”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road