If he lived today, Charles Bukowski would not survive the witch-hunt that is perpetrated from certain ideological sectors with those who do not hold back when it comes to saying what they think.
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50 Charles Bukowski phrases for thoughtful minds
For the most closed-minded, some of the following Charles Bukowski phrases will seem scandalous .
To tell the truth, in this era of political correctness and unique thought, where opinions that go beyond the established dogma are not accepted, many of these statements would not pass the filter of censorship and the writer would be subjected to public ridicule, as it happens with anyone who dares to question certain ideas imposed from above.
1. If you want to know who your friends are, have them put you in jail
This is one of Charles Bukowski’s phrases collected in Writings of an Indecent Old Man. Same as him,there are those who say that friends can hardly be counted on the fingers of one hand .
2. Civilization is a lost cause; politics, an absurd lie; work, a cruel joke
Charles Bukowski’s phrases like this show that the author of Factotum was not someone especially optimistic. But seeing how the panorama is, is there anyone who still has hope
? 3. “That’s the problem with drinking,” he thought, as he poured me a drink: If something bad happens, you drink to try to forget; if something good happens, you drink to celebrate; and if nothing happens, you drink to make something happen
Bukowski’s fondness for drinking was known to all ; Many of his most controversial statements revolve around alcohol.
4. An intellectual is one who says a simple thing in a complicated way. An artist is one who says a complicated thing in a simple way
. Not all people are born with the necessary sensitivity to speak the language of art, nor to know how to interpret it.
5. She was a more or less good soul, but the world is full of more or less good souls and look where we are…
With this declaration of intent, Charles Bukowski emphasizes that despite the goodness of some people, the world is plunged in a debacle from which we will hardly get out.
6. I think I need a drink – Almost everyone does, they just don’t know it.
For Bukowski, there was always some reason to tip the elbow .
7. People without morals often consider themselves freer, but most were incapable of feeling hate or love
. Are feelings a cage that prevents us from achieving freedom, or the means to achieve such a goal?
8. Our society we have formed it with our lack of spirit; it’s as if we deserved it
One of our favorite Charles Bukowski phrases, but with a nuance: let’s take away that it’s “as if” we deserved it…
9. The man, despite his bravado, is the faithful one, the one who generally feels love . The woman is an expert in betrayal. And the torture and the perdition. Never envy a man’s wife. Behind all this is the living hell
Half of Twitter users, along with the social media thought police, would be asking for Charles Bukowski’s head for this statement if he made it today.
10. My ambition is limited by my laziness
In his work Factotum, from 1975, there is this huge phrase by Charles Bukowski about the ability of laziness to prevent what could be great achievements.
- You may be interested: 50 intelligent phrases for prodigious minds.
11. When you drink, the world is still out there, but at that moment it doesn’t have you by the neck
Drinking is the way of escape for many people to flee from their problems momentarily. The point is that these always come back, and can get complicated if one abuses , although Bukowski did not seem to care.
12. I went to the movies
very little because I was enough myself to kill my time, I didn’t need extra help the public that really knows how to appreciate them.
13. What the hell does a man get out of thinking ?
Just trouble
. Okay. I’m going to stop thinking about 3,2,1…
14. If you are a failure, it is very likely that you will be an excellent writer .
Many great creators did not succeed until after they died . Apparently, it seems that was not the case with Bukowski.
15. Of course it is possible to love a human being, if you do not know him too well
The Witnesses of Love do not believe in phrases by Charles Bukowski like the one quoted. They will say that love is the most and what moves the world and blah blah…
16. It’s not my day. Neither my week, and my month and my year. Nor my life. Dammit!
Continue game
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
17. There are worse things than being alone, but it often takes decades to realize and most of the time when you do? it’s too late and there’s nothing more terrible than being too late
And how many people spend their lives trying to find someone to feel fulfilled and forget to live their life
? Let’s wake up, because no one is going to live it for us!
18. – Do you hate people
– I don’t hate them, I just feel better when they’re not around
Without a doubt, this writer is unique in his kind, he wasn’t afraid to admit that he didn’t like people . Without a doubt, a very good symptom.
19. Why do I drink alcohol
– Because no good story begins with “I was eating a salad”
Aren’t there good stories without deprivation involved
I don’t know, I’m sober as I write these lines…
20. The difference between a brave and a coward is that a coward thinks twice before jumping into the cage with a lion. The brave simply do not know what a lion is. He Just Thinks He Knows
According to this witty phrase by Charles Bukowski, there is a fine line between bravery and recklessness.
21. There will always be money and whores and drunks, until the last bomb drops
OH! He said “whores”. Good luck with the lawsuit , Charles.
22. It’s good to feel hostility, it keeps a clear head
With phrases like this, Charles Bukowski chose to distance himself from human contact to take refuge in his inner world.
23. People do not want to work, people want to live well, but without working
“I can’t conceive of life without work”, “if I didn’t work, I don’t know what I would do”… Really
Being able to choose, are there those who would opt for a life dedicated to working?
We remain skeptical when someone blurts out a phrase like this in order not to admit a controversial statement.
24. It seems to me that life is totally devoid of interest, and this I felt especially when I worked eight hours a day. Most of the men worked eight hours a day, and they don’t love life either. There is no reason to love life for someone who works eight hours a day, because he is a loser
When we are not sure if we work to live or live to work, when working hours get longer or when we waste time doing something other than work, while our life is consumed; we should keep in mind quotes by Charles Bukowski like this.
25. What is love
Love is a fog that burns with the first light of the day of reality
Another reality slap dedicated to the Witnesses of Love from friend Charles Bukowski.
26. No pain means the end of feeling; each of our joys is a deal with the devil
Charles Bukowski’s phrases are clear and direct. For him, the joys of human beings represent a pleasure that, on many occasions, has to do with our deepest secrets .and less innocent.
27. There are times when a man has to fight so much for life that he doesn’t have time to live it
And sometimes, we realize when it’s too late.
28. Man was born to die
“Dust you are and to dust you will return”. Come on, for Bukowski it doesn’t matter how we choose to live life, we’ll all end up the same sooner or later.
29. Be good enough at anything and you’ll make your own enemies
They say that envy is the national sport: when someone is doing well, there’s no time for the hyenas to jump on them and try to take advantage of other people’s work, or well try to beat him up. One of the most successful phrases of Charles Bukowski.
30. The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you can vote before obeying orders
. A perfect definition of what many democracies end up being .
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31. Knowledge, if you do not know how to apply it, is worse than ignorance.
Knowledge is a gift that must be used to do something useful with it, because otherwise, it is worse than the ignorant person who lacks it, because at least this live happy.
32. Real loneliness is not necessarily limited to when you are alone
Sometimes being surrounded by other people is worse than not being accompanied.
33. Beware of those who seek crowds
As in the previous phrases of Charles Bukowski about loneliness, this one comes to emphasize that precisely those people who always seek company and do not tolerate their moments alone, are precisely the ones who feel the most empty for inside.
34. They can see you dying in a gutter and they will pass by your side and spit on you
And there will even be those who celebrate seeing you in such a situation.
35. You have to die a few times before you can really live.
Do we die several times throughout life before reaching the grave
? 36. A love like that was a serious disease. An illness from which you never fully recover
. What did the Witnesses of Romantic Love think of the pathological conception that Bukowski had about love?
37. I only know that there are too many people with fear
. Fear is the main element that paralyzes us and prevents us Act.
38. Sometimes you get out of bed in the morning and think that you will not be able to achieve it, but you laugh inside because you remember all the times you have felt that way
Among the phrases of Charles Bukowski that invite discouragement, it has slipped in This one that drives us to face a new day even if we don’t see ourselves capable.
39. I wanted to cry but the tears never came out. It was that kind of sadness, a sick sadness, the one where you can’t feel any worse. I think everyone goes through it from time to time, but for me it is very often, too often.
Probably that is why Bukowski gave so much to birdseed .
40. If you’re going to try, go all the way. If not, don’t even try. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, and even your mind. It could make you not eat for days… And it will be better than anything you’ve ever tried
Or as Yoda would say: “Do or don’t, but don’t try”. Was Bukowski secretly a Jedi apprentice?
41. Being alone never felt right. Sometimes it felt good, but never adequate
In a society in which its members are forced to mate in order not to be branded as weird and are marginalized, opting for a solitary life seems a symptom of pathology or mental defect. For us, it is rather the other way around.
42. It was true that he did not have much ambition, but there should be a place for people without ambition
According to Charles Bukowski phrases of this style, not all people want to perform great feats . Some (how crazy!) even want to live.
43. Good human beings save the world so that bastards like me can continue creating art, become immortal. If you read this after he’s dead, then he’s made it.
We don’t know if someone has secretly saved the world, but what is clear is that, 24 years after his death, we’re still talking about Charles Bukowski.
44. There is a place in the heart that is never filled. A space that even in the best of times will never be filled, and we will wait and wait in that space.
Some of Charles Bukowski’s phrases denote that he was someone who felt a great sorrow in his heart with which he had become accustomed to living.
45. I stopped looking for the girl of my dreams, I just wanted one that wasn’t a nightmare
. Maybe the writer’s mistake from the beginning was thinking that he had to look for someone. Let’s hope it didn’t take long for him to realize it , although judging by this quote from Charles Bukowski, it doesn’t seem like it.
46. I’m a genius but no one knows it apart from me
. We know it, Charles. We know it…
47. Most people go from nothing to the grave with barely a touch of the horror of life
And yet their suffering seems to be agonizing.
48. In general, I bring something to read so I don’t have to see people
. We have left the best phrases of Charles Bukowski for last. We will follow his advice and do the same to avoid forced and unwanted interactions .
49. The problem with the world is that intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are those who have confidence in themselves
Truths as temples courtesy of Charles Bukowski.
50. Give something to the human race and they will scrape it and scratch it and crush it
And we close the list with what is the best of Charles Bukowski’s phrases: a shrewd and very accurate criticism of how the human being is capable of destroying and prostituting everything that which is beautiful, protected by the excuse of progress, of the advancement of the species or, simply, for its use and enjoyment.
- You may be interested: 40 phrases to reflect on human nature.
