I can never drive my car over a bridge without thinking of suicide. I can never look at a lake or an ocean without thinking of suicide.
Charles BukowskiRead
Humanity, you never had it from the beginning." That was my motto.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a cynical view of humanity, suggesting that true 'humanity' has always been absent from our nature.
In this quote, Charles Bukowski expresses a deeply skeptical perspective on human nature, implying that the qualities we often attribute to humanity β kindness, compassion, and empathy β were never truly present in the first place. This notion challenges idealistic views of human potential and suggests that what we perceive as 'humanity' is more of a facade that has never accurately represented the reality of our existence.
In practice
In a discussion about human behavior and societal norms.
I can never drive my car over a bridge without thinking of suicide. I can never look at a lake or an ocean without thinking of suicide.
when I am feeling low all i have to do is watch my cats and my courage returns
The masses are always wrong...Wisdom is doing everything the crowd does not do. All you do is reverse the totality of their learning and you have the heaven they're looking for.
I'm going to open another vottle. not a vottle, but a bottle. you open it and I'll drink it. and you try to write as much as I did without falling off of your chair.
To experience real agony is something hard to write about, impossible to understand while it grips you; you're frightened out of your wits, canβt sit still, move, or even go decently insane.
I lapsed into my pathetic cut-off period. Often with humans, both good and bad, my senses simply shut off, they get tired, I give up. I am polite. I nod. I pretend to understand because I donβt want anybody to be hurt. That is the one weakness that has lead me into the most trouble. Trying to be kind to others I often get my soul shredded into a kind of spiritual pasta. No matter. My brain shuts off. I listen. I respond. And they are too dumb to know that I am not there.
Unless we believe and see Jesus in the appearance of bread on the altar, we will not be able to see him in the distressing disguise of the poor.
Celebrity distorts democracy by giving the rich, beautiful, and famous more authority than they deserve.
If truth is the main casualty in war, ambiguity is another.
Salvation is an act of God. It is initiated by God, wrought by God, and sustained by God.
I'm open to everything. When you start to criticize the times you live in, your time is over.
Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine ACTIONS than in the non-performance of base ones.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.