National Personnel Records Center

14 Stirring Jack Kerouac Quotes That Will Inspire The Restless Wanderer Within You

Onwards!
Bianca Sparacino
August 31, 2016
“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: The Original Scroll (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“Ah, life is a gate, a way, a path to Paradise anyway, why not live for fun and joy and love or some sort of girl by a fireside, why not go to your desire and LAUGH”
— Jack Kerouac, Big Sur: (Penguin Ink)
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? – it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“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.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“I was surprised, as always, be how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“Happy. Just in my swim shorts, barefooted, wild-haired, in the red fire dark, singing, swigging wine, spitting, jumping, running—that's the way to live. All alone and free in the soft sands of the beach by the sigh of the sea out there.”
— Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“For me it was just red wine in my mouth and a pile of firewood.”
— Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“What a horror it would have been if the world was real.”
— Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“I believed in a good home, in sane and sound living, in good food, good times, work, faith and hope. I have always believed in these things. It was with some amazement that I realized I was one of the few people in the world who really believed in these things without going around making a dull middle class philosophy out of it. I was suddenly left with nothing in my hands but a handful of crazy stars.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“My eyes were glued on life and they were full of tears.”
— Jack Kerouac, Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“Better to sleep in an uncomfortable bed free, than sleep in a comfortable bed unfree.”
— Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength. Learning for instance, to eat when he’s hungry and sleep when he’s sleepy.”
— Jack Kerouac, Lonesome Traveler
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits
“I want to work in revelations, not just spin silly tales for money. I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down, everyone will understand because they are the same that far down.”
— Jack Kerouac, Letters From Jack Kerouac to Ed White, 1947 - 1968 by Jack Kerouac (1994) Paperback
Tagged: Kerouac, Misfits