Quotes by Jack Kerouac

“Now you understand the Oriental passion for tea, said Japhy. Remember that book I told you about the first sip is joy, the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy.”

“Write in recollection and amazement for yourself”

“The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great that I thought I was in a dream.”

“I awoke and at times birds fled and migrated /that had been sleeping in your soul.”

“Everyone in this life is defeated. But a man, if he be a man, is not defeated.”

“Fear the day when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, distinctive in the universe.”

“Fact of the matter is, there is no hip world, there is no straight world. Theres a world, you see, which has people in it who believe in a variety of different things. Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, uses that something to support their own existence”

“I am testis tempurum, lux veritatis, vita memorial, magistra vitae, nunita vetustatis. The Philosopher”

Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said, God, I love you and looked to the sky and really meant it. I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other. To the children and the innocent its all the same.

And the story of love is a long sad tale ending in graves.

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.

I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didnt know who I was - I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room Id never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didnt know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasnt scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost.

Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life

Pain or love or danger makes you real again....

Be in love with your life, every detail of it.

So shut up, live, travel, adventure, bless and dont be sorry

But why think about that when all the golden lands ahead of you and all kinds of unforseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad youre alive to see?

I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future.

It is possible for the human spirit to win after all.

The only truth is music.