Jack Kerouac quotes to live by

 

 “Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.” 
― Jack Kerouac

  

American novelist Jack Kerouac was one of the people that really left their mark in the literary world. Kerouac served in the US marine during World War 2 and was said to have lived in poverty. Despite that, he produced some of his greatest written works during those trying times. 

This shows us that despite going through difficult or traumatic events; it does not mean that these things define us. It means that we can take what has been done to us and turn it into something grand; that we can take our pain and transform it into some of our best productions whether it be a book, a poem, or a painting.

Below is a couple of some of Kerouac’s inspiring quotes that I like to live by. 

“[…]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!” 
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road 

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” 
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

“The best teacher is experience and not through someone’s distorted point of view” 
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road 

“Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.” 
― Jack Kerouac 

“I have lots of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina on a cold winter moonlit night. It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don’t worry. It’s all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don’t know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever. Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky way soft cloud innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect. We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere: Self is only an idea, a mortal idea. That which passes into everything is one thing. It’s a dream already ended. There’s nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be glad about. I know this from staring at mountains months on end. They never show any expression, they are like empty space. Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away? Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space, which is the one universal essence of mind, the vast awakenerhood, empty and awake, will never crumble away because it was never born.” 

― Jack Kerouac, The Portable Jack Kerouac