Jack Kerouac

"The power to change your life is always in your own hands."

"I learned that patience is the virtue of champions."

"The greatest adventures happen when you say yes to the unknown."

"I believe in the power of words to transform the world."

"The only failure is giving up before you've started."

"I want to leave the world more beautiful than I found it."

"One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple."

"Believing in nothing is also a belief, so be careful."

"The only time I felt any real interest in him was when he started to moan, when he was sick or tired."

"I realized these were all the snapshots which our children would look at someday with wonder, thinking their parents had lived smooth, well-ordered lives and got up in the morning to walk proudly on the sidewalks of life."

"Somewhere along the line I knew there'd be girls, visions, everything; somewhere along the line the pearl would be handed to me."

"I have nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion."

"Maybe that's what life is... a wink of the eye and winking stars."

"The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes."

"I want to work in revelations, not just spin silly tales for money."

"It is a lonely life, growing up in the world."

"There's a lot of intelligence in the hands."

"Write freely and as much as possible; the words will follow."

"One thing I liked about my grandmother was that she never tried to make me anything other than what I was."

"The world is holy! Everything is holy! Everywhere is holy!"

"I wish they'd never invented the atom bomb."

"Stay in touch with the ground; the ground is your friend."

"Spend all your time trying to be cool and you'll waste your life."

"Everything is perfect if you just realize it."

"Rush, rush, rush. Where's the fire?"

"I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop."

"At night, the skies wept, and the stars flickered like uncertain thoughts."

"The measure of a person is not how high they climb but how they treat those below them."

"I am not the first nor will I be the last to discover new truths in old books."

"It's only when we lost everything that we're free to do anything."