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
...maybe a damned good night's sleep will bring me back to a gentle sanity. But at the moment, I look about this room and, like myself, it's all in disarray: things fallen out of place, cluttered, jumbled, lost, knocked over and I can't put it straight, don't want to. Perhaps living through these petty days will get us ready for the dangerous ones.
Interpretation
A restful night can restore clarity amidst chaos, preparing us for tougher times ahead.
This quote speaks to the importance of rest and reflection during chaotic periods in life. Bukowski suggests that a good night's sleep could help restore a sense of order and sanity, and he acknowledges that even when things are out of place, experiencing life's challenges prepares us for the more significant struggles we will face in the future.
In practice
In a speech about resilience, you could quote Bukowski's reflection on sanity and chaos to emphasize the importance of rest amidst life's turmoil.
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, can’t 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 don’t 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.
Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought! Why do you stay in prison When the door is so wide open?
The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you're finished.
Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.
It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in it's place is a work extremely troublesome.
Our words reveal our thoughts; our manners mirror our self-esteem; our actions reflect our character; our habits predict the future.
The first proof of a well-ordered mind is to be able to pause and linger within itself.
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