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
There is nothing that teaches you more than regrouping after failure and moving on. Yet most people are stricken with fear. They fear failure so much that they fail. They are too conditioned, too used to being told what to do. It begins with the family, runs through school and goes into the business world.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Failure is a crucial teacher, but fear prevents many from learning its lessons.
This quote by Charles Bukowski highlights the importance of resilience and the learning process that failure provides. It suggests that while many individuals fear failure so much that it paralyzes them, true growth and understanding come from regrouping, learning from setbacks, and moving forward. The impact of conditioning from family, education, and work environments is also noted, as it shapes attitudes towards risk and failure.
Themes
FailureFearResilienceGrowthLearning
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech to encourage a team after a setback.
More from Charles Bukowski
All quotes →when 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, can’t 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 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.
Charles BukowskiRead
Similar quotes
Our opponents maintain that we are confronted with insurmountable political obstacles, but that may be said of the smallest obstacle if one has no desire to surmount it.
Theodor HerzlRead
An athlete may run ten thousand miles in order to prepare for one hundred yards. Quantity gives experience.
Ray BradburyRead
Sometimes in life you don't always feel like a winner, but that doesn't mean you're not a winner, you want to be like yourself. I want my fans to know it's okay.
Lady GagaRead
I don't believe in this business of being behind, better to be in front.
Mel BrooksRead
Expect the best; convert problems into opportunities; be dissatisfied with the status quo; focus on where you want to go, instead of where you're coming from; and most importantly, decide to be happy, knowing it's an attitude, a habit gained from daily practice, and not a result or payoff.
Denis WaitleyRead
I'm too busy putting my energies into my performance to be a diva.
Shirley BasseyRead