The best Quotes from On the Road

They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because 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 middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!" What did they call such young people in Goethe’s Germany?

So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, and all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all the rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.

...when I was a kid and rode in cars I used to imagine I held a big scythe in my hand and cut down all the trees and posts and even sliced every hill that zoomed past the window.

Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.

My relationships with my cats has saved me from a deadly, pervasive ignorance.

Like all pure creatures, cats are practical.

The aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values.

Black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. Casual curses are the most effective.

The only truth is music.

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... burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles.

All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together.

I hope it is true that a man can die and yet not only live in others but give them life, and not only life, but that great consciousness of life.

Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.

Be in love with your life. Every minute of it.

A child's voice, however honest and true, is meaningless to those who've forgotten how to listen.

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.

All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it.

Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?

Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited.

Walk until the darkness is a memory, and you become the sun on the next traveler's horizon.