100+ Insightful Bukowski Quotes: Unravel the Mind of a Literary Icon

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today."

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."

"Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going."

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

"Believe you can and you’re halfway there."

"It always seems impossible until it’s done."

"Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life."

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you."

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

"Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today."

"If you want to achieve greatness, stop asking for permission."

"It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up."

"Great things never come from comfort zones."

"Dream big. Start small. Act now."

"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard."

"Opportunities don't happen. You create them."

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be."

"Wake up with determination. Go to bed with satisfaction."

"You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."

"I’m not lazy, I’m on energy-saving mode."

"I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high. She looked surprised."

"I used to think I was indecisive, but now I’m not so sure."

"My bed is a magical place where I suddenly remember everything I was supposed to do."

"I’m not arguing, I’m just explaining why I’m right."

"I don’t need therapy, I just need a vacation… preferably somewhere with Wi-Fi."

"I’m not short, I’m concentrated awesome."

"Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?"

"I didn’t lose my mind. I sold it on eBay."

"If at first you don’t succeed, redefine success."

"I’m not late. Everyone else is just early."

"I put the ‘pro’ in procrastination."

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies."

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

"In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours."

"Love makes the time pass. Time makes love stronger."

"If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk through my garden forever."

"To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides."

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."

"I saw that you were perfect, and so I loved you. Then I saw that you were not perfect, and I loved you even more."

"Where there is love, there is life."

"You’re the closest to heaven, that I’ll ever be."

"Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."

"I would rather spend one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone."

"The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for himself."

"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."

"True wisdom comes not from knowledge, but from understanding."

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."

"It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well."

"With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts."

"He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened."

"The fool speaks, the wise man listens."

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."

"Do more listening than talking, and you’ll learn twice as fast."

"Patience is the companion of wisdom."

"The best teacher is experience. Everything else is just information."

"Be the change."

"Just do it."

"Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

"Think different."

"No excuses."

"Dream big."

"Make it happen."

"Rise up."

"Keep going."

"Own your story."

"Create relentlessly."

"Live fully."

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

"Happiness depends upon ourselves."

"Man is the measure of all things."

"Everything that changes moves from something to something."

"We suffer more often in imagination than in reality."

"By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart."

"Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant."

"The only thing I know is that I know nothing."

"Life must be understood backward, but lived forward."

"Doubt is the origin of wisdom."

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."

"It's fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure."

"Failure is the tuition you pay for success."

"Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent advantage."

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."

"Failure is not the opposite of success; it’s part of success."

"The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing."

"Fail fast, fail often, but always fail forward."

"A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else."

"Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes."

"Success is not measured by how high you climb, but how many people you bring with you."

"Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."

"The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same."

"Success is not how much money you make, it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives."

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."

"Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value."

"Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable."

"Success is not owned, it’s rented — and rent is due every day."

"The secret of success is constancy to purpose."

"Success happens when preparation meets opportunity."

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."

"Living my truth, one post at a time."

"Good vibes only."

"Creating my own sunshine."

"Self-care isn’t selfish."

"Confidence level: Selfie with no filter."

"Making memories and avoiding laundry."

"Plotting world domination between naps."

"Slaying goals and stealing Wi-Fi."

"Out here proving wrong people right."

"Too glam to give a damn."

"Doing my best, which is pretty great."

"This is not a lifestyle blog. This is my life."