According to Charles Bukowski “Sadness is caused by intelligence, the more you understand certain things, the more you wish you didn’t understand them.”

In his honor, here are his best quotes!

1) “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts. While the stupid ones are full of confidence.” – Charles Bukowski

2) “Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must live.” – Charles Bukowski

3)  “Find what you love and let it kill you.” – Charles Bukowski

4) “I wasn’t much for a petty thief. I wanted the whole world or nothing.” – Charles Bukowski

5) “You’ve to die a few times before you actually live.” – Charles Bukowski

6) “Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.” – Charles Bukowski

7) “We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that death will tremble to take us.” – Charles Bukowski

8) “The less I needed, the better I felt.” – Charles Bukowski

9) “What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” – Charles Bukowski

10) “If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.” – Charles Bukowski

11) “We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing. ” – Charles Bukowski

12) “The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”  – Charles Bukowski

13) “The nine-to-five is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind. You give your life away to a function that doesn’t interest you.”  – Charles Bukowski

14) “We must.. We must bring our own light to the darkness” – Charles Bukowski

15) “An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.” ― Charles Bukowski