Read This If You're Feeling Stuck: 22 Jack Kerouac Quotes To Spur You Towards Adventure

“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…”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“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, with the Ma-Wink fallopian virgin warm stars reflecting on the…”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“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, amazon.com

“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, never dreaming the raggedy madness and riot of our actual lives, our actual ni…”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great, that I thought I was in a dream.”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“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, amazon.com

“The best teacher is experience and not through someone's distorted point of view.”

— Jack Kerouac, en.wikiquote.org

“Finding Nirvana is like locating silence.”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“I was surprised, as always, by how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility.”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was—I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I'd never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood…”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“My whole wretched life swam before my weary eyes, and I realized no matter what you do it's bound to be a waste of time in the end so you might as well go mad.”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

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

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“It all ends in tears anyway.”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“We agreed to love each other madly.”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said, 'God, I love you' and looked to the sky and really meant it. 'I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other.' To the children and the innocent it's all the same.”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all. The woods do that to you, they always look familiar, long lost, like the face of a long-dead relative, like an old dream, like a piece of forgotten song drifting across the water, most of all like golden eternities of past child…”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“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 midd…”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“I tried to tell her how excited I was about life and the things we could do together; saying that, and planning to leave Denver in two days. She turned away wearily. We lay on our backs, looking at the ceiling and wondering what God had wrought when He made life so sad.”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“'I just won't sleep,' I decided. There were so many other interesting things to do.”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com

“Let the mind beware, that though the flesh be bugged, the circumstances of existence are pretty glorious.”

— Jack Kerouac, amazon.com