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It's Hard To Explain And Best Thing To Do Is Not Be False.
-Jack Kerouac
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It's Hard To Explain

Jack Kerouac
...
It's Hard To Explain And Best Thing To Do Is Not Be False.

Understanding the Quote: "it's hard to explain and best thing to do is not be..."

This quote by Jack Kerouac reflects deeply on the theme of things to do. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Things To Do, Best Things, Hard, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Jack Kerouac interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac is celebrated for insightful thoughts on things to do and best things. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Things To Do
Best Things
Hard
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Dean And I Both Swayed To The Rhythm And The It Of Our Final Excited Joy In Talking And Living To The Blank Traced End Of All Innumerable Riotous Angelic Particulars That Had Been Lurking In Our Souls All Our Lives.
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Then It's Goodbye, Sangsara For Me Besides, Girls Aren't As Good As They Look And Samadhi Is Better Than You Think When It Starts In Hitting Your Head In With Buzz Of Glittergold Heaven's Angels, Wailing, Saying We've Been Waiting For You Since Morning, Jack Why Were You So Long Dallying In The Sooty Room? This Transcendental Brilliance Is The Better Part (of Nothingness I Sing) Okay. Quit. Mad. Stop.
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Forever
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Reading
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Autumn
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Who Can Leap The World's Ties And Sit With Me Among White Clouds?
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White
Ties
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Los Angeles
Brutal
It’s Not That I Can’t Fall In Love. It’s Really That I Can’t Help Falling In Love With Too Many Things All At Once. So, You Must Understand Why I Can’t Distinguish Between What’s Platonic And What Isn’t, Because It’s All Too Much And Not Enough At The Same Time.
Falling In Love
Too Much
Helping
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Moving
Hands
Guy
Return Those Shoes To The Shoemaker Return This Hand To My Father This Pillow To The Pillowmaker Those Slippers To The Shop. That Wainscot To The Carpenter, But My Mind My Tranquil And Eternal Mind Return It To Whom?
Life And Love
Father
Hands
It Was My Dream That Screwed Up, The Stupid Hearthside Idea That It Would Be Wonderful To Follow One Great Red Line Across America Instead Of Trying Various Roads And Routes.
Dream
Stupid
Ideas
And This Is The Way A Novel Gets Written, In Ignorance, Fear, Sorrow, Madness, And A Kind Of Psychotic Happiness As An Incubator For The Wonders Being Born.
Ignorance
Joy
Sorrow
Ah, You Always Go For The Ones Who Don't Really Want You
Want
If You Own A Rug You Own Too Much.
Wisdom
Too Much
Ifs
But Why Think About That When All The Golden Lands Ahead Of You And All Kinds Of Unforseen Events Wait Lurking To Surprise You And Make You Glad You're Alive To See?
Thinking
Land
Waiting
I Saw That My Life Was A Vast Glowing Empty Page And I Could Do Anything I Wanted.
I Hate You
Glowing
Pages
But There's No Joy At All, People Say "oh Well He's Drunk And Happy Let Him Sleep It Off"--the Poor Drunkard Is *crying*--he's Crying For His Mother And Father And Great Brother And Great Friend, He's Crying For Help. (p.111)
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Brother
Father
They Have Worries, They're Counting The Miles, They're Thinking About Where To Sleep Tonight, How Much Money For Gas, The Weather, How They'll Get There - And All The Time They'll Get There Anyway, You See.
Wisdom
Sleep
Thinking
Goddamn It, Feeling Is What I Like In Art, Not Craftiness And The Hiding Of Feelings.
Art
Feelings
Hiding
When You Start Separating People From Their Rivers, What Have You Got? Bureaucracy!
Rivers
People
Bureaucracy
Oh My God, Sociability Is Just A Big Smile And A Big Smile Is Nothing But Teeth, I Wish I Could Just Stay Up Here And Rest And Be Kind." But Somebody Brought Up Some Wine And That Started Me Off.
Wine
Wish
Teeth
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Long
Easy
Ends
It'll Take You Eternities To Get Rid Of Me,' She Adds Sadly, Which Makes Me Jealous, I Want Her To Say I'll Never Get Rid Of Her - I Wanta Be Chased Till Eternity Till I Catch Her.
Jealous
Add
Want
I Realized These Were All The Snapshots Which Our Children Would Look At Someday With Wonder, Thinking Their Parents Had Lived Smooth, Well-ordered Lives And Got Up In The Morning To Walk Proudly On The Sidewalks Of Life, Never Dreaming The Raggedy Madness And Riot Of Our Actual Lives, Our Actual Night, The Hell Of It, The Senseless Emptiness.
Dream
Wisdom
Morning
Now The Mountains Were Getting That Pink Tinge, I Mean The Rocks, They Were Just Solid Rock Covered With The Atoms Of Dust Accumulated There Since Beginningless Time. In Fact I Was Afraid Of Those Jagged Monstrosities All Around And Over Our Heads. "they're So Silent!" I Said. "yeah Man, You Know To Me A Mountain Is A Buddha. Think Of The Patience, Hundreds Of Thousands Of Years Just Sitting There Bein Perfectly Perfectly Silent And Like Praying For All Living Creatures In That Silence And Just Waitin For Us To Stop All Our Frettin And Foolin.
Mean
Men
Thinking
The Best Teacher Is Experience And Not Through Someone's Distorted Point Of View
Wisdom
Teacher
Views
He Had No Place He Could Stay In Without Getting Tired Of It And Because There Was Nowhere To Go But Everywhere, Keep Rolling Under The Stars.
Wisdom
Travel
Stars
But That's Alright Because Now Everything'll Be Alright & We'll Soothe The Forever Boys & Girls & Before We're Thru We'll Find A Name For This Goddam Golden Eternity & Tell A Story Too
Girl
Boys
Names
Better To Sleep In An Uncomfortable Bed Free, Than Sleep In A Comfortable Bed Unfree.
Wisdom
Sleep
Bed
Contrary To The General Belief About Photography, You Don't Need Bright Sunlight: The Best Moodiest Pictures Are Taken In The Dim Light Of Almost Dusk, Or Of Rainy Days.
Photography
Taken
Rainy Day
Life Was Dense, Dark, Ancient. They Watched Dean, Serious And Insane At His Raving Wheel, With Eyes Of Hawks. All Had Their Hands Outstretched. They Had Come Down From The Back Mountains And Higher Places To Hold Forth Their Hands For Something They Thought Civilization Could Offer, And They Never Dreamed The Sadness And The Poor Broken Delusion Of It.
Sadness
Eye
Dark
We Are Nothing. - Tomorrow We May Be Die. We Are Nothing. - You And Me.
May
Tomorrow
Dies
Always Pull Back-and See How Silly We Must Look To God.
Silly
Looks
Burroughs Is The Greatest Satirical Writer Since Jonathan Swift. . . . The Net Result Of Naked Lunch Will Be To Make People Shudder At Their Own Lies, Will Be To Make Them Open Up And Be Straight With One Another. Swift And Rabelais And Sterne Accomplished A Step In That Direction, And Burroughs Another.
Lying
Lunch
People
The Bus Roared On. I Was Going Home In October. Everybody Goes Home In October.
Home
October
Going Home
So I Rushed Past The Pretty Girls, And The Prettiest Girls In The World Live In Des Moines.
Girl
Past
World
You Aren't Ever Going To Be Anything In This World Unless You Do What You Want To Do, When You Want To Do It--don't Plan Anything, Just Go Out And Do It.
World
Want
Plans
In All This Welter Of Women I Still Hadn't Got One For Myself, Not That I Was Trying Too Hard, But Sometimes I Felt Lonely To See Everybody Paired Off And Having A Good Time And All I Did Was Curl Up In My Sleeping Bag In The Rosebushes And Sigh And Say Bah. For Me It Was Just Red Wine In My Mouth And A Pile Of Firewood
Lonely
Wine
Sleep
I Swore I'd Be In Chicago Tomorrow, And Made Sure Of That, Taking A Bus To Chicago, Spending Most Of My Money, And Didn't Give A Damn, Just As Long As I'd Be In Chicago Tomorrow.
Cities
Long
Giving
The Fact Was I Had The Vision... I Think Everyone Has... What We Lack Is The Method.
Thinking
Vision
Facts
Don't Touch Me, I'm Full Of Snakes.
Snakes
Touch Me
In My Madness I Was Actually In Love With Her For The Few Hours It All Lasted; It Was The Same Unmistakable Ache And Stab Across The Mind, The Same Sighs, The Same Pain, And Above All The Same Reluctance And Fear To Approach.
Pain
Mind
Madness
I'm Stuck Struggling In The Cold Water, And All I Can Do Is Grieve, Grieve, In The Hoar Necessitous Horror Of The Morning, Bitterly I Hate Myself, Bitterly It's Too Late Yet While I Feel Better I Still Feel Ephemeral And Unreal And Unable To Straighten My Thoughts Or Even Really Grieve, In Fact I Feel Too Stupid To Be Really Bitter, In Short I Don't Know What I'm Doing And I'm Being Told What To Do.
Morning
Hate
Stupid
Great Things Are Not Accomplished By Those Who Yield To Trends And Fads And Popular Opinion.
Inspirational
Life
Beautiful
Rocks Are Space, And Space Is Illusion.
Rocks
Space
Illusion
Somewhere Along The Line I Knew There'd Be Girls, Visions, Everything; Somewhere Along The Line The Pearl Would Be Handed To Me.
Girl
Vision
Would Be
Soon It Got Dusk, A Grapy Dusk, A Purple Dusk Over Tangerine Groves And Long Melon Fields; The Sun The Color Of Pressed Grapes, Slashed With Burgandy Red, The Fields The Color Of Love And Spanish Mysteries.
Sunset
Color
Purple
You Don't Know What To Say To Me Because The Kingdom Is Within...flesh And Blood's Dream...so You Fly Now, Pay Later, All Of Us...i Mean Actually It's Pay Now, Fly Later
Dream
Mean
Blood
Anybody Doesn't Like These Pitchers Don't Like Potry, See? Anybody Don't Like Potry Go Home See Television Shots Of Big Hatted Cowboys Being Tolerated By Kind Horses. Robert Frank, Swiss, Unobtrusive, Nice, With That Little Camera That He Raises And Snaps With One Hand He Sucked A Sad Poem Right Out Of America Onto Film, Taking Rank Among The Poets Of The World. To Robert Frank I Now Give This Message: You Got Eyes.
Horse
Nice
Eye
The Only Truth Is Music.
Music
Wisdom
Inspirational Music
Live, Travel, Adventure, Bless, And Don't Be Sorry.
Inspirational
Life
Beautiful
It's Okay, Girl, We'll Make It Till The Sun Goes Down Forever. And Until Then What You Got To Lose But The Losing? We're Fallen Angels Who Didn't Believe That Nothing Means Nothing.
Girl
Believe
Mean
Once There Was Louis Armstrong Blowing His Beautiful Top In The Muds Of New Orleans; Before Him The Mad Musicians Who Had Paraded On Official Days And Broke Up Their Sousa Marches Into Ragtime. Then There Was Swing, And Roy Eldridge, Vigorous And Virile, Blasting The Horn For Everything It Had In Waves Of Power And Logic And Subtlety - Leaning Into It With Glittering Eyes And A Lovely Smile And Sending It Out Broadcast To Rock The Jazz World.
Beautiful
Eye
New Orleans
If Critics Say Your Work Stinks It's Because They Want It To Stink And They Can Make It Stink By Scaring You Into Conformity With Their Comfortable Little Standards. Standards So Low That They Can No Longer Be Considered "dangerous" But Set In Place In Their Compartmental Understandings.
Wisdom
Art
Powerful
The Truth Of The Matter Is, You Die, All You Do Is Die, And Yet You Live, Yes You Live, And That's No Harvard Lie.
Lying
Matter
Harvard
Mind Is The Maker, For No Reason At All, For All This Creation, Created To Fall.
Fall
Mind
Creation
I Wish The Whole World Was Dead Serious About Food Instead Of Silly Rockets And Machines And Explosives Using Everybody's Food Money To Blow Their Heads Off Anyway.
Silly
Blow
Wish
Your Buddhism Has Made You Mean Ray And Makes You Even Afraid To Take Your Clothes Off For A Simple Healthy Orgy
Mean
Buddhism
Simple
My Shoes Are Clean From Walking In The Rain.
Rain
Shoes
Clean
I Think It's All Lovely Hallucination But I Love It Sorta.
Thinking
Lovely
Hallucinations
The Taste Of Rain -- Why Kneel?
Rain
Taste
To The Children And The Innocent It's All The Same.
Children
Vapor
Innocent
All Day Long Wearing A Hat That Wasn't On My Head
Long
Hats
Work From Pithy Middle Eye Out, Swimming In Language Sea.
Eye
Swimming
Sea
And As Far As I Can See The World Is Too Old For Us To Talk About It With Our New Words.
World
New Words
I Can
And Before Me Was The Great Raw Bulge And Bulk Of My American Continent; Somewhat Far Across, Gloomy, Crazy New York Was Throwing Up Its Cloud Of Dust And Brown Steam. There Is Something Brown And Holy About The East; And California Is White Like Washlines And Emptyheaded - At Least That's What I Thought Then.
New York
Crazy
Clouds
When The Railroad Trains Moaned, And River-winds Blew, Bringing Echoes Through The Vale, It Was As If A Wild Hum Of Voices, The Dear Voices Of Everybody He Had Known, Were Crying: "peter, Peter! Where Are You Going, Peter?" And A Big Soft Gust Of Rain Came Down. He Put Up The Collar Of His Jacket, And Bowed His Head, And Hurried Along.
Rain
Echoes
Wind
All Our Best Men Are Laughed At In This Nightmare Land.
Men
Land
Big Sur
And You Have Been Forever, And Will Be Forever, And All The Worrisome Smashings Of Your Foot On Innocent Cupboard Doors It Was Only The Void Pretending To Be A Man Pretending Not To Know The Void.
Men
Doors
Feet
Life Is Life, And Kind Is Kind
Kind
Life Is
Avoid The World, It's Just A Lot Of Dust And Drag And Means Nothing In The End.
Mean
Dust
World
What's In Store For Me In The Direction I Don't Take?
Wisdom
Stores
You Can't Teach The Old Maestro A New Tune.
Tunes
Maestro
Teach
Keep It Kickwriting At All Costs Too, That Is, Write Only What Kicks You And Keeps You Overtime Awake From Sheer Mad Joy.
Writing
Mad
Joy
I'd Rather Be Thin Than Famous But I'm Fat Paste That In Your Broadway Show
Broadway
Fats
Shows
Dharma Bums Refusing To Subscribe To The General Demand That They Consume Production And Therefore Have To Work For The Privilege Of Consuming, All That Cramp They Didn't Really Want Anyway Such As Refrigerators, Tv Sets, Cars, At Least New Fancy Cars, Certain Hair Oils And Deodorants And General Junk You Finally Always See A Week Later In The Garbage Anyway, All Of Them Imprisoned In A System Of Work, Produce, Consume, Work, Produce, Consume.
Hair
Fancy Cars
Oil
And He Had A Nice Home In Ohio With Wife, Daughter, Christmas Tree, Two Cars, Garage, Lawn, Lawnmower, But He Couldn't Enjoy Any Of It Because He Really Wasn't Free. It Was Sadly True.
Daughter
Nice
Home
This Is The Story Of America. Everybody's Doing What They Think They're Supposed To Do.
4th Of July
Thinking
America
I Came To A Point Where I Needed Solitude And Just Stop The Machine Of ‘thinking’ And ‘enjoying’ What They Call ‘living’, I Just Wanted To Lie In The Grass And Look At The Clouds.
Life
Lying
Thinking
I Was Having A Wonderful Time And The Whole World Opened Up Before Me Because I Had No Dreams.
Dream
World
Wonderful
Paris Is A Woman But London Is An Independent Man Puffing His Pipe In A Pub.
Independent
Men
Paris
The Beat Generation (coined In Playboy)
Generations
Beats
Playboy
I Promise I Shall Never Give Up, And That I'll Die Yelling And Laughing, And That Until Then I'll Rush Around This World I Insist Is Holy And Pull At Everyone's Lapel And Make Them Confess To Me And To All.
Wisdom
Giving Up
Yelling
Because He Had No Place He Could Stay In Without Getting Tired Of It And Because There Was Nowhere To Go But Everywhere, Keep Rolling Under The Stars.
Travel
Stars
Tired
Don't Tell Them Too Much About Your Soul. They're Waiting For Just That.
Waiting
Soul
Too Much
There Is Universal Substance Which Is Divine Substance Because Where Else Can It Be?
Substance
Divine
Universal
I Didn't Know What To Say. I Felt Like Crying, Goddammit Everybody In The World Wants An Explanation For Your Acts And For Your Very Being.
Life
World
Want
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