“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”

Charles Bukowski
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Atheism
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“Find what you love and let it kill you.”

Charles Bukowski
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Life
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“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.”

Charles Bukowski
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Art
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“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”

Charles Bukowski
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Motivational
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“That’s the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.”

Charles Bukowski
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Drinking
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“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”

Charles Bukowski
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Philosophy
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“The girls looked good from a distance, the sun shining through their dresses, their hair. But get up close and listen to their minds running out of their mouths, you felt like digging in under a hill and hiding out with a Tommy gun.”

Charles Bukowski
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Women
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“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.”

Charles Bukowski
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Love
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“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t.”

Charles Bukowski
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Love
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“If you want to know who your friends are, get yourself a jail sentence.”

Charles Bukowski
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Friendship
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“That is what friendship means. Sharing the prejudice of experience.”

Charles Bukowski
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Friendship
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“Things get bad for all of us, almost continually, and what we do under the constant stress reveals who/what we are.”

Charles Bukowski
Submitted by Quonation |Category: General