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Ken Kesey

Ken Kesey Quotes

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Ken Kesey was an influential American author best known for his anti-establishment novel 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. His works often delve into social and political issues, and are celebrated for their unique narrative style and profound insights.

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All Literature One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Thinking Ifs Men Cuckoos Knows People Way Mcmurphy Flew World Firsts Guy Might Laughing Looks Want Writing Long

Famous Ken Kesey Quotes

“They’ve still got their problems, just like all of us. They’re still sick men in lots of ways. But at least there’s that: they are sick men now. No more rabbits, Mack. Maybe they can be well men someday. I can’t say.”

Men Strength Mental Illness Rabbits

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“There's shames a man can never reason away, though he looks back and piles up reasons over them forty dozen deep. And maybe those are the shames a man never should reason away.”

Men Should Looks Reason Shame Forty Dozen

Book:Sometimes a Great Notion

Source: Sometimes a Great Notion

“Men are forever eager to press drink upon those they consider their superiors, hoping thereby to eliminate that distinction between them.... And women, when confronted by superiors, substitute for drink the crippling liquor of their sex.”

Men Sex Women Forever Drink Presses Superiors Distinction Substitutes Liquor

Author:Ken Kesey

“It is bad to suppress laughter. It goes back down to your hips. Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.”

Men Loses Laughing Laughter Hips

Author:Ken Kesey

“Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.”

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“The secret of being a top-notch con man is being able to know what the mark wants, and how to make him think he's getting it.”

Thinking Knows Men Want Able Secret Mark Notches Top Notch

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Never before did I realize that mental illness could have the aspect of power, power. Think of it: perhaps the more insane a man is, the more powerful he could become. Hitler an example. Fair makes the old brain reel, doesn't it?”

Thinking Men Realizing Powerful Brain Example Fairs Aspect Illness Mental Illness Insane

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“But the rest are even scared to open up and laugh. You know, that's the first thing that got me about this place, that there wasn't anybody laughing. I haven't heard a real laugh since I came through that door, do you know that? Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.”

Knows Men Firsts Real Loses Laughing Doors Heard Havens Scared Do You Know Flew Cuckoos One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“No one's ever dared come out and say it before, but there's not a man among us that doesn't think it, that doesn't feel just as you do about her and the whole business - feel it somewhere down deep in his scared little soul.”

Thinking Men Feels Littles Soul Whole Scared Feels Just

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.”

Men Two Revenge Graves

Book:Sometimes a Great Notion

Source: Sometimes a Great Notion

“You're making sense, old man, a sense of your own. You're not crazy the way they think. Yes...I see.”

Thinking Men Way Crazy Make Sense Old Man One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“Man is certain of nothing but his ability to fail. It is the deepest faith we have, and the unbeliever- the blasphemer, the dissenter- will stimulate in us the most righteous of furies.”

Men Certain Ability Failing Reflection Righteous Fury Unbelievers

Book:Sometimes a Great Notion

Source: Sometimes a Great Notion

“No, that nurse ain't some kinda monster chicken, buddy, what she is is a ball-cutter. I've seen a thousand of 'em, old and young, men and women. Seen 'em all over the country and in the homes- people who try to make you weak so they can get you to toe the line, to follow their rules, to live like they want you to. And the best way to do this, to get you to knuckle under, is to weaken you by gettin' you where it hurts the worst.”

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“But if they don't exist, how can a man see them?”

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“But, gee," the other nurse says, "what on earth would MAKE a man want to do something like disrupt the ward for, Miss Ratched? What possible motive...?""You seem to forget, MISS Flinn, that this is an institution for the insane.”

Men Want Seems Earth Forget Missing Institutions Insane Motive Nurse

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“I believe that a man should be... as big as he feels it in him to be!”

Men Feels Should Believe Bigs I Believe

Author:Ken Kesey

“What can you pay for the way a man lives? What can you pay for what a man is?”

Book:One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary Edition

“Alongside the statement about one man's poison being another man's high, one might as well add that one man's saint can be another man's sore and one man's hero can turn out to be that man's biggest hangup.”

Men Wells Might Turns Hero Add Saint Statements Poison One Man Another Man

Book:Sometimes a Great Notion

Source: Sometimes a Great Notion

About the Author

Born: September 17, 1935
Died: November 10, 2001
Known for: Author
Quotes: 199

Related Topics

Literature One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Thinking Ifs Men Cuckoos Knows People Way Mcmurphy Flew World Firsts Guy Might Laughing Looks Want Writing Long

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestRelated source material

Sometimes a Great NotionRelated source material

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s NestRelated source material

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: 50th Anniversary EditionRelated source material

Kesey's Jail Journal: Cut the M************ LooseRelated source material

Kesey's garage saleRelated source material

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (SparkNotes Literature Guide)Related source material

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