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"Now you understand the Oriental passion for tea," said Japhy. "Remember that book I told you about; the first sip is joy, the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy."

— Jack Kerouac The Dharma Bums (1958)

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More quotes by Jack Kerouac

The fact that everybody in the world dreams every night ties all mankind together.

Book of Dreams (1961)

Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?

On the Road (1957)

All our best men are laughed at in this nightmare land.

Pomes All Sizes (1992)

All is well, practice kindness, heaven is nigh.

Visions of Gerard (1963)

Who knows, my God, but that the universe is not one vast sea of compassion actually, the veritable holy honey, beneath all this show of personality and cruelty?

All Jack Kerouac quotes →

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The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

The key to self-generated happiness (the only reliable kind) is the refusal to take oneself too seriously.

Tom Robbins High Times interview (2002)

It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.

Cary Grant Love – That’s All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About (1964)

Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy.

Spider Robinson

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jack Kerouac (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.