The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved.
Jack KerouacItโs a sort of furtiveness โฆ Like we were a generation of furtive. You know, with an inner knowledge thereโs no use flaunting on that level, the level of the โpublicโ, a kind of beatness โ I mean, being right down to it, to ourselves, because we all really know where we are โ and a weariness with all the forms, all the conventions of the world โฆ Itโs something like that. So I guess you might say weโre a beat generation.
Jack Kerouaccolleges being nothing but grooming schools for the middle-class non-identity which usually finds its perfect expression on the outskirts of the campus in rows of well-to-do houses with lawns and television sets in each living room with everybody looking at the same thing and thinking the same thing at the same time while the Japhies of the world go prowling in the wilderness to hear the voice crying in the wilderness, to find the ecstacy of the stars, to find the dark mysterious secret of the origin of faceless wonderless crapulous civilization.
Jack KerouacYeah," I said, "but you're an artist. You don't believe in decency and honesty and gratitude. Where shall we eat?
Jack KerouacIn our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever...listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, It is all one vast awakened thing. We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere: Self is only an idea, a mortal idea. That which passes into everything is one thing. It's a dream already ended.
Jack Kerouac