"Because in the end, you won't remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain"
"Once there was Louis Armstrong blowing his beautiful top in the muds of New Orleans; before him the mad musicians who had paraded on official days and broke up their Sousa marches into ragtime. Then there was swing, and Roy Eldridge, vigorous and virile, blasting the horn for everything it had in waves of power and logic and subtlety - leaning into it with glittering eyes and a lovely smile and sending it out broadcast to rock the jazz world."
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Source: Jack Kerouac (1976). “On the Road”, p.241, Penguin
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"Maybe that's what life is... a wink of the eye and winking stars."
"Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you're already in heaven now."
"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."
"Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion."
"Put down the pen someone else gave you. No one ever drafted a life worth living on borrowed ink."