
“Maybe suffering has no more justification than life.”
On the Heights of Despair (1934)
The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe p. 234
“Maybe suffering has no more justification than life.”
On the Heights of Despair (1934)
As quoted in Details (1993-11).
Interviews (1989-1994), Print
“There are no habits of man more alien to the doctrine of the Communist than those of the collector”
"Gossip in a Library"
In the Name of the Bodleian, and Other Essays
A Vision of the Uncorrupted Society, p. 288 (See also: Hunter S. Thompson..)
The Corrupt Society - From Ancient Greece To Present-Day America (1975)
At an interview with Stephen Colbert at Montclair Kimberley Academy on January 29th, 2010.
2010s
Variant: If you start wielding a hammer, then all your problems look like nails. And maybe they’re not. Maybe it's more subtle than that. And so your toolkit has to be able to morph into what is necessary for what it is that you confront at that moment.
“Maybe that's what life is… a wink of the eye and winking stars.”
Letter to Alan Harrington (23 April 1949) published in Kerouac: Selected Letters: Volume 1 1940-1956 (1996)
Source: Selected Letters, 1940-1956