Jack Kerouac: Quotes about the world

Jack Kerouac was American writer. Explore interesting quotes on world.
Jack Kerouac: 532   quotes 65   likes

“What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? — it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Part Two, Ch. 8
Source: On the Road (1957)

Goodbye , People , World , Feeling

“I was surprised, as always, by how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Not a Kerouac quote, but by Jon Krakauer, from his nonfiction book Into the Wild (1996).
Misattributed
Source: On the Road

World

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them; disagree with them; glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Jack Kerouac

Used in the Apple "Think Different" marketing campaign and sometimes attributed to Kerouac on the internet, perhaps because it evokes his famous quote from On the Road: "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"" The original script was actuality written by Rob Siltanen with participation of Lee Clow. In "The Real Story Behind Apple's 'Think Different' Campaign" in Forbes (14 December 2011) http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2011/12/14/the-real-story-behind-apples-think-different-campaign/ Rob Siltanen states: "I wrote everything..." "I shared my scripts with Lee, and he thought they were good. He made a couple tweaks..."
Misattributed

Motivational , People , World , Quotes

“Listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world”

Jack Kerouac

Letter to Edith Parker Kerouac (28 January 1957); published in Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters 1957-1969 (1999)

World , Silence

“A pain stabbed my heart, as it did every time I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Variant: I wished I was on the same bus as her. A pain stabbed my heart as it did everytime I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world of ours.
Source: On the Road

Love , Pain , World , Girl

“It always makes me proud to love the world somehow- hate's so easy compared.”

Jack Kerouac book Big Sur

Source: Big Sur

Love , Hate , World

“Thinking of the stars night after night I begin to realize "The stars are words" and all the innumerable worlds in the Milky Way are words, and so is this world too. And I realize that no matter where I am, whether in a little room full of thought, or in this endless universe of stars and mountains, it's all in my mind.”

Jack Kerouac book Lonesome Traveler

Lonesome Traveler (1960)

World , Way , Mountain , Star

“We should be wondering tonight, "Is there a world?"”

Jack Kerouac

But I could go and talk on 5, 10, 20 minutes about is there a world, because there is really no world, cause sometimes I'm walkin' on the ground and I see right through the ground. And there is no world. And you'll find out.
"Is There A Beat Generation?" forum at Hunter College, New York, New York (8 November 1958)

World

“One man practicing kindness in the wilderness is worth all the temples this world pulls.”

Jack Kerouac book The Dharma Bums

Source: The Dharma Bums

World

“My aunt once said that the world would never find peace until men fell at their women's feet and asked for forgiveness.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Women , Men , World , Peace

“Things are so hard to figure out when you live from day to day in this feverish and silly world.”

Jack Kerouac

Source: On the Road: The Original Scroll

World

“The closer you get to real matter, rock air fire and wood, boy, the more spiritual the world is.”

Jack Kerouac book The Dharma Bums

Source: The Dharma Bums

World , Boy

“I promise I shall never give up, and that I'll die yelling and laughing, and that until then I'll rush around this world I insist is holy and pull at everyone's lapel and make them confess to me and to all.”

Jack Kerouac
World

“The fact that everybody in the world dreams every night ties all mankind together.”

Jack Kerouac

Book of Dreams (1961) Foreword
As misquoted in Night and Day (1989) by Jack Maguire, p. 221; Maguire does not cite his source, so this widely quoted variant appears to be an erroneous paraphrase of this published statement. It is not a direct quote from some other statement by Kerouac.
Variant: All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together.

World , Dreams , Night

“Let nature do the freezing and frightening and isolating in this world. let men work and love and fight it off.”

Jack Kerouac

Source: Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954

Love , Men , World , Nature

“… we all must admit that everything is fine and there's no need in the world to worry, and in fact we should realize what it would mean to us to UNDERSTAND that we're not REALLY worried about ANYTHING.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

World , Understanding

“What difference does it make after all? — anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what's heaven? what's earth? All in the mind.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Part Three, Ch. 11
Source: On the Road (1957)
Context: In 1942 I was the star in one of the filthiest dramas of all time. I was a seaman, and went to the Imperial Café on Scollay Square in Boston to drink; I drank sixty glasses of beer and retired to the toilet, where I wrapped myself around the toilet bowl and went to sleep. During the night at least a hundred seamen and assorted civilians came in and cast their sentient debouchements on me till I was unrecognizably caked. What difference does it make after all? — anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what's heaven? what's earth? All in the mind.

Men , World

“The road must eventually lead to the whole world.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

World

“I didn't know what to say. I felt like crying, Goddammit everybody in the world wants an explanation for your acts and for your very being.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

World , Cry