Beware those quick to praise for they need praise in return beware those who are quick to censor they are afraid of what they do not know beware those who seek constant crowds for they are nothing alone

— Charles Bukowski

Beware women grownoldwho were never anything but young

— Charles Bukowski

Born into this Into hospitals which are so expensive that it's cheaper to die Into lawyers who charge so much it's cheaper to plead guilty Into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed Into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes...

— Charles Bukowski

But then if you lied to a man about his talent just because he was sitting across from you, that was the most unforgivable lie of them all, because that was telling him to go on, to continue which was the worst way for a man without real talent to waste his life, finally. But many people did just that, friends and relatives mostly.

— Charles Bukowski

(by the way. . . I realize I switch from present to past tense, and if you don't like it. . . Ram a nipple up your scrotum. -printer: leave this in.)

— Charles Bukowski

Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?

— Charles Bukowski

Cats tell me without effort all that there is to know.

— Charles Bukowski

Censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and from others. Their fear is only their inability to face what is real, and I can't vent any anger against them; I only feel this appalling sadness. Somewhere in their upbringing, they were shielded against the total facts of our existence.

— Charles Bukowski

Crawled like a blind slug into the web

— Charles Bukowski

Darkness falls upon Humanity and faces become terriblethingsthat wanted more than there was. All our days are marked withunexpectedaffronts - some disastrous, othersless so but the process swearing and continuous. Attrition rules. Most givewayleavingempty spaces where people should be. And novas we ready to self-destruct there is very little left tokillwhich makes the tragedyless and moremuch much more.

— Charles Bukowski