I can never drive my car over a bridge without thinking of suicide. I can never look at a lake or an ocean without thinking of suicide.
Charles BukowskiRead
Humanity, you never had it from the beginning." That was my motto.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a cynical view of humanity, suggesting that true 'humanity' has always been absent from our nature.
In this quote, Charles Bukowski expresses a deeply skeptical perspective on human nature, implying that the qualities we often attribute to humanity β kindness, compassion, and empathy β were never truly present in the first place. This notion challenges idealistic views of human potential and suggests that what we perceive as 'humanity' is more of a facade that has never accurately represented the reality of our existence.
In practice
In a discussion about human behavior and societal norms.
I can never drive my car over a bridge without thinking of suicide. I can never look at a lake or an ocean without thinking of suicide.
when I am feeling low all i have to do is watch my cats and my courage returns
The masses are always wrong...Wisdom is doing everything the crowd does not do. All you do is reverse the totality of their learning and you have the heaven they're looking for.
I'm going to open another vottle. not a vottle, but a bottle. you open it and I'll drink it. and you try to write as much as I did without falling off of your chair.
To experience real agony is something hard to write about, impossible to understand while it grips you; you're frightened out of your wits, canβt sit still, move, or even go decently insane.
I lapsed into my pathetic cut-off period. Often with humans, both good and bad, my senses simply shut off, they get tired, I give up. I am polite. I nod. I pretend to understand because I donβt want anybody to be hurt. That is the one weakness that has lead me into the most trouble. Trying to be kind to others I often get my soul shredded into a kind of spiritual pasta. No matter. My brain shuts off. I listen. I respond. And they are too dumb to know that I am not there.
It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.
There are always interests that are furthered by war. Therefore, those who have power and influence can also stop them... we should not accept any excuses from those in power.
We are not merely passive pawns of historical forces; nor are we victims of the past. We can shape and direct history.
The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson taught that while the people should patriotically and cheerfully support their government, its functions do not include the support of the people.
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.
The first call which every Christian experiences is the call to abandon the attachments of this world.
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