Charles Bukowski Quotes

I consider myself a fearless idiot.

In civil business; what first? boldness; what second and third? boldness: and yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness.

I'm so optimistic, I'd go after Moby Dick in a rowboat and take the tartar sauce with me.

I've never been afraid of much, and like any normal kid, I liked to push the limits of what I could do.

I'll take any risk there is.

In battle, you forgive a man anything except an unwillingness to take risks. Sometimes you have to put it on the line.

I'd stop in the middle of a gun fight and sing a song.

A coward turns away, but a brave man's choice is danger.

Choose bravery but not bravado.

I dive fearless into things.

I guess I have a certain willingness for audacity.

Fearless doesn't mean careless. There is a thin line between fearless and careless. I think we need to play fearless.

There's a fine line between brave and mad. But whatever I do, I go for it.

I've never lacked guts, for good or bad.

I ignore my fear,” he says. “When I make decisions, I pretend it doesn’t exist.” I stare at him for a second. I can’t help it. To me there’s a difference between not being afraid and acting in spite of fear, as he does.

There's a fine line between audacity and idiocy.

Courage is nothing more than taking one step more than you think you can.

I think that when you have audacity, you will get polarization.

We must substitute courage for caution.

To me fearless isn't not having fears, it's not that you're not afraid of anything. I think that being fearless is having a lot of fears, but you jump anyway.

Courage is clearly a readiness to risk self-humiliation.

The shortest route to courage is absolute ignorance.

Sometimes if something scares me, I lean right into it . I’m not a brave person— I’m more of a fearless idiot.

Caution, Sir! I am eternally tired of hearing that word caution. It is nothing but the word of cowardice!

Does it make you brave to stick your hand in a bear's mouth? Would you do it again just because you didn't die?