There’s something violently beautiful about Charles Bukowski’s words. Crude yet poetic, hopeless yet inspiring, his quotes cut through life’s romanticized illusions with a rusted blade of truth. Whether he’s unpacking loneliness, mocking ambition, or dragging love through a gutter, Bukowski doesn’t just write—he confronts.
In this curated collection, we dive deep into the raw marrow of his mind to uncover the wisdom most only dare whisper to themselves.
The Raw Truth
“We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that death will tremble to take us.”
“People are strange: they are constantly angered by trivial things, but on a major matter like totally wasting their lives, they hardly seem to notice.”
“Find what you love, and let it kill you.”
“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start.”
The Human Condition: Flaws & Loneliness
“Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot.”
“Real loneliness is not necessarily limited to when you are alone.”
“There is loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of a clock’s hand.”
“There are worse things than being alone, but it often takes decades to realize this, and most often when you do, it’s too late. And there’s nothing worse than too late.”
“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, ‘I’m not going to make it,’ but you laugh inside, remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.”
“We don’t even ask happiness; just a little less pain.”
“People run from rain, but sit in bathtubs full of water.”
“I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.”
“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”
On Love & Relationships: Unfiltered Perspectives
“Love is all right for those who can handle the psychic overload. It’s like trying to carry a full garbage can on your back over a rushing river of piss.”
“Of course, it’s possible to love a human being, if you don’t know them too well.”
“There is always one woman to save you from another, and as that woman saves you, she makes ready to destroy.”
“Love is like a serious illness: an illness from which you never entirely recover.”
“How can you trust a creature that bleeds every month and doesn’t lie?”
“Sex is a great thing only when there is nothing else to do.”
“The woman who wants the most sex is the one who often yearns for a deeper sense of intimacy, yet may struggle to find it through physical meaning alone.”
“Love is a form of prejudice. You love what you need; you love what makes you feel good; you love what is convenient.”
“I have always liked visiting women myself, more than when they are visiting me. You can always get away from them.”
Success, Money & Ambition: A Different View
“Your ambition is handicapped by laziness.”
“There are only two things wrong with money: too much or too little.”
“Bad taste creates many more millionaires than good taste.”
“The less I needed, the better I felt.”
“Ambition rarely helps talent. Another thing is luck; talent always trails behind her.”
“Great art is horseshit. Buy tacos.”
Authenticity & Self-Preservation
“If you managed to deceive a person, this does not mean that he is a fool; it means that you were trusted more than you deserve it.”
“Beauty is nothing. Beauty won’t stay. You don’t know how lucky you are to be ugly, because if people like you, you know it’s for something else.”
“Never say three things about yourself: your plans, your income, and the number of people you’ve slept with.”
“Some people like what you do. Some people hate what you do. But most people simply don’t give a damn.”
“I often carry things to read so that I will not have to look at the people.”
“The woman who smiles at you when you meet her is most likely just planning to feed her ego.”
Wisdom for the Soul: Finding Your Way
“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.”
“We must bring our own light to the darkness.”
“You are not promised anything in life; no contract was signed with you.”
“If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.”
“You have to die a few times before you can really live.”
“Nobody can save you but yourself, and you’re worth saving. It’s a war not easily won, but if anything is worth winning, then this is it.”
“Life’s as kind as you let it be.”
“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.”
“Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same.”
The Darker Humor & Social Commentary
“Nothing is worse than to finish a good shit, then reach over and find the toilet paper container empty. Even the most horrible human being on Earth deserves to wipe his ass.”
“The shortest distance between two points is often unbearable.”
“The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later. In a dictatorship, you don’t have to waste your time voting.”
“As humans, we adjust to new conditions and discoveries; we are pliable.”
“There are times when those eyes inside your brain stare back at you.”
“You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time. All else is grandiose romanticism or politics.”
“Some moments are nice, some are nicer, some are even worth writing about.”
“We are like roses that have never bothered to bloom when we should have bloomed, and it is as if the sun has become disgusted with waiting.”
“Too often the people complain that they have done nothing with their lives, and then they wait for somebody to tell them that this isn’t so.”
“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered, but for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written.”
“And why do women always need the husbands of other women? And why do horse thieves always prefer a tamed horse to a wild one?”
“Dogs and angels are not very far apart.”
“Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.”
Bukowski didn’t write for the polite. He wrote for the broken, the bold, the bored—and in doing so, gave voice to the uncomfortable truths we often ignore. His quotes remind us that beauty exists in flaws, that rebellion is sometimes sanity, and that life—no matter how ugly—is still worth living raw.
Which Bukowski quote hit you hardest?
Let it simmer. Then drop it in the comments below—we’d love to know what line punched you in the gut or hugged your bruised soul.
Hungry for more Bukowski?
These quotes are just the tip of his beautifully twisted iceberg. Dive deeper into the raw genius of Charles Bukowski through his books:
📖 Post Office – his gritty, semi-autobiographical debut that redefined dirty realism.
📖 Ham on Rye – a brutal coming-of-age tale soaked in rebellion.
📖 Love is a Dog From Hell – a poetry collection as tender as it is savage.
👉 Grab a copy, feel something real, and maybe even bleed a little beauty into your own life.
You would also like to read these Benjamin Franklin Quotes That Will Change the Way You Think
