50 Books to Read Before You Die

words to inspire before you expire

Tag: Chief Bromden

August 13, 2018 /

“‘I discovered at an early age that I was—shall we be kind and say different? It’s a better, more general word than the other one. I indulged in certain practices that our society regards as shameful. And I got sick. It wasn’t the practices, I don’t think, it was the feeling that the great, deadly, pointing forefinger of society was pointing at me—and the great voice of millions chanting, “Shame. Shame. Shame.” It’s society’s way of dealing with someone different.'”

—from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

August 10, 2018 /

” . . . you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.”

—from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

August 6, 2018 /

“‘ . . . in this country, when something is out of order, then the quickest way to get it fixed is the best way.'”

—from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

July 30, 2018 /

” . . . most of us—are machines with flaws inside that can’t be repaired, flaws born in, or flaws beat in over so many years of the guy running head-on into solid things that by the time the hospital found him he was bleeding rust in some vacant lot.”

—from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

July 27, 2018 /

“[McMurphy] sounds like he’s way above them, talking down, like he’s sailing fifty yards overhead, hollering at those below on the ground. He sounds big. I hear him coming down the hall, and he sounds big in the way he walks, and he sure don’t slide; he’s got iron on his heels and he rings it on the floor like horseshoes.”

—from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

July 23, 2018 /

“I been silent so long now it’s gonna roar out of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling you this is ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It’s still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.”

—from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

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