Jack Kerouac Quotes

I think a person needs to learn from childhood to find himself alone. It means to not be bored when you’re by yourself, because a person who finds himself bored when alone –as it seems to me– is in danger.

Every hero must have the courage to be alone, to take the journey for himself.

I think part of a hero construct is overcoming loss, or being abandoned, or having to make your own way in the world.

Talent is nurtured in solitude; character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

But if I must be alone, I refuse to be alone as if it were something weak and distasteful, like convalescence.

So now, all alone or not, you gotta walk ahead. Thing to remember is if we're all alone, then we're all together in that too.

It is clear that we must trust what is difficult; everything alive trusts in it, everything in Nature grows and defends itself any way it can and is spontaneously itself, tries to be itself at all costs and against all opposition. We know little, but that we must trust in what is difficult is a certainty that will never abandon us; it is good to be solitary, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult must be one more reason for us to do it.

We have entered a Moment when we are alone. We cannot get assistance, as before. Well, Mr. Tagomi thought, perhaps that too is good. Or can be made good. One must still try to find the Way.

So it is necessary that we should learn to be alone.

I don't lack confidence. I don't sweat. I don't want to get too Zen on you, but I have to run my own race.

In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

For me, a happy ending is not everything works out just right and there is a big bow, it's more coming to a place where a person has a clear vision of his or her own life in a way that enables them to kind of throw down their crutches and walk.

The strong man is strongest when alone.

My real guru are my experiences in life - the realisation that you are alone in this world came very early to me.

In silence - and in self-defense - I figured things out in my own little way.

The best thing we can do is develop our own.

Since being quite young, I've had a very strong sense of independence and survival. As a child, I was on my own two feet emotionally.

For a long time all I wanted for Christmas were books about outdoor survival. I was convinced that the woods were calling me. I camped a lot, I took classes. At 18, I told myself if I don't live in the woods by myself by the time I'm 25, I have failed.

Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne, / He travels the fastest who travels alone.

The thought of being on my own really terrified me. But then I realized being alone is really a cleansing thing.

More than anything, I think my connection to the sea has really helped me develop my independence and a sense of the importance and value of my own vision.

I've realised that I actually like being by myself.

I have plenty of good people around me I can talk to and for me it's the man in the mirror that gives the answers if I have hard times or if I doubt.

I had to find my own path, and in some ways, it's been a good thing.