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
the masses are everywhere they know how to do things: they have sane and deadly angers for sane and deadly things.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the collective human experience is driven by both rational and passionate responses to the world around us.
In this quote, Charles Bukowski reflects on the nature of the masses, indicating that people possess an inherent understanding of how to navigate life's challenges. He acknowledges that the emotions and reactions of the masses are not just instinctual but are grounded in a deep awareness of their circumstances, leading to both constructive and destructive outcomes. Bukowski's words hint at the complexity of human behavior, where both 'sane' reasoning and 'deadly' anger are fundamental to the human condition.
Themes
MassesAngerHuman NatureUnderstandingEmotions
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about social movements and collective action, this quote can illustrate how public sentiment drives change.
More from Charles Bukowski
All quotes βwhen I am feeling low all i have to do is watch my cats and my courage returns
Charles BukowskiRead
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.
Charles BukowskiRead
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.
Charles BukowskiRead
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.
Charles BukowskiRead
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.
Charles BukowskiRead
Similar quotes
There is something noble in hearing myself ill spoken of, when I am doing well.
Alexander The GreatRead
Maybe the ultimate wound is the one that makes you miss the war you got it in.
Sebastian JungerRead
Animals are sentient, intelligent, perceptive, funny and entertaining. We owe them a duty of care as we do to children.
Michael MorpurgoRead
I realized that Eastern thought had somewhat more compassion for all living things. Man was a form of life that in another reincarnation might possibly be a horsefly or a bird of paradise or a deer. So a man of such a faith, looking at animals, might be looking at old friends or ancestors. In the East the wilderness has no evil connotation; it is thought of as an expression of the unity and harmony of the universe.
William O. DouglasRead
...It all seemed to him to have disappeared as if behind a curtain at a theater. There are such curtains that drop in life. God is moving on to the next act.
Victor HugoRead
If our condition were truly happy, we would not seek diversion from it in order to make ourselves happy.
Blaise PascalRead