The Rebel of the West
I am weary, world-weary.
Many manage. Few lead.
My push forward is inexorable.
I eat meat, but only during Lent.
The only rule I respect is self-rule.
He came out shooting his mouth off.
When I’m down on my luck, I ante up.
Dog tag. — A cheap piece of artwork.
Just like anything new, it gets old fast.
The war for independence never ends.
When power fights truth, it usually wins.
I’m a wanderer who never leaves home.
I run into prejudice everyday — my own.
Life is one thing. Your legend is another.
I enjoy the kind of fame that is notorious.
I’m not afraid to die. The dead got it easy.
I’m willing to go anywhere but backwards.
In my book, conformity is a capital offense.
Regardless of our denial, we all face oblivion.
I sit on the fence because both sides look dirty.
I was into S&M until I was drawn and quartered.
A troubled life beats the hell out of a boring one.
In between the rise and fall, there’s great hubris.
An unremitting spirit forms the soul of greatness.
I’m a strongman looking for a few good yes-men.
Protect liberty! Toss the book burners into the fire.
The martyr is the one role I’ve been dying to play.
My biggest fear is becoming old and respectable.
Be proactive. Beat the system before it beats you.
The first act of liberation is breaking those chains.
I picked her up on the road. She was a wildflower.
Comfort and security are the enemies of progress.
If you think I’m dark, you should see my shadows.
Unfortunately, there’s no peace free from calamity.
An heir to the throne never complains of nepotism.
So the world conspires against you, conspire back.
I have yet to find a cause as convincing as my ego.
The greater the man, the greater the contradictions.
Only an honest man can fully realize his selfishness.
Being a revolutionary doesn’t pay well until you win.
When you fight the effect, the cause grows stronger.
Bad trip. — I’m tripping on the baby steps of infamy.
If there’s one thing that holds a man down, it’s ethics.
Good lawyers tell both sides of the story equally well.
If I cannot breathe freely, I don’t want to breathe at all.
Like an individual, an aphorism must stand on its own.
Move forward! Leave the gossip and the trolls behind.
Funny face. — I love wit except when I’m the butt of it.
Every empire begins with the dream of individual glory.
As long as there is oppression, there will be resistance.
I only carry one tool with me — the hammer of the gods.
When you lose the fear of death, you lose the fear of life.
The air at the summit is thin, but you can’t beat the views.
I was born in the 1970s, but at heart, I’m a child of the 60s.
My feet and my mind are my main forms of transportation.
As soon as I start to feel settled, I get the bug to move on.
I can live with just about anything, except my conscience.
If you don’t think for yourself, your master will do it for you.
’Tis more fortunate to be low born socially than genetically.
I pledge allegiance to nothing and make love to everything.
If the revolution fails, I hope the bourgeoisie let me back in.
Some people can’t handle the truth. I can if it’s sugarcoated.
Thought leader. — I don’t follow anything but my own press.
They issued me a ticket for defiance, and I fucking tore it up.
I’ve never known an ambition that was satisfied for very long.
It’s when I get what I want that I find myself most dissatisfied.
The farther I travel away from myself, the closer I get to home.
When bankers and lawyers mate, they give birth to a politician.
Greaser. — The only thing I have a surplus of is leather jackets.
Living like there is no tomorrow can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
On the face of things, confidence struts and insecurity slouches.
Cheers, TP. — I won’t back down until I’m six feet underground.
On the top of every great deed, there is a sprinkling of audacity.
In the pursuit of greatness, ’tis better to be a rifle than a shotgun.
Stare decisis. — The law has no respect for the unprecedented.
I’ve been arrested numerous times, mostly for stealing the scene.
The worse part of being an outsider is not getting the inside jokes.
If power is the ultimate aphrodisiac, then ambition is the sex drive.
When you’re flexing your muscles, it’s hard to exercise your mind.
I started supporting property rights after they gave me the title Sir.
I’m still pissed at myself for missing the 60s. I hear it was a real riot.
Typically, groundbreakers have to start shoveling all by themselves.
Without death pushing him forward, man would accomplish nothing.
The only generals worth following are the ones that lead the charge.
Like any good man of words, I enjoy the saying more than the doing.
Heroes are primarily made on the front line and in Hollywood studios.
If you don’t break a tradition or two, you’ll never create anything new.
Sad story. — He courted freedom and ended up marrying loneliness.
Get your motor runnin’. — I’m an Easy Rider. At least, in the bedroom.
If God hadn’t hired a prosecutor, the devil wouldn’t need an advocate.
We’re all hypocrites. It’s just that some of us are better at it than others.
You should never take directions from a man that appears lost himself.
Purple mountain majesties. — The lower the valley, the higher the peak.
To become forged steel, first you must endure the fire and the hammer.
Kill with your quill. — You don’t need a gun when you have a sharp pen.
The only way they’re shipping me back to the Midwest is in a body bag.
I have always danced in the middle between revolution and compliance.
Nothing is so dangerous as a man who believes he possesses the truth.
My first album was Straight Outta Babylon and my first track Babble On.
She wanted to pay her respects, but I was buried in an unmarked grave.
I have a much greater appreciation for people when I’m not around them.
If it weren’t for your Puritanism, I wouldn’t feel the need to be provocative.
True that. — When you’re the one in power, it’s hard not to be reactionary.
Happy trails. — When you clear your own path, you get to name the trails.
Who said that, Robespierre? — Live by the guillotine, die by the guillotine.
True patriotism. — Out of all the shitty systems in the world, ours is the best.
Some say you have to be rich to be free. I say you have to be free to be rich.
Exhortation. — Fear not failure and be not a slave to other people’s opinions.
If you want to travel far, you have to travel light. Eagles don’t carry suitcases.
I have never been more certain of my fate and less sure of where it’s heading.
I don’t want to be murdered until it can officially be declared an assassination.
We complain about institutions, but it’s really the humans that are the problem.
An artist must travel down his own path even if he finds it populated with critics.
Surprise is an advantage that accompanies anonymity that is soon lost to fame.
A nihilistic note. — The sky rained cold indifference, and the wind blew nowhere.
The path of a pioneer isn’t paved, but the trailblazers dig the bumps in the road.
Pushing the envelope. — Every story of progress revolves around a broken limit.
Like a candle that burns on both ends, the brilliance dies as quickly as it ascends.
We must become our own industry if we aren’t to rely on others for our livelihood.
They almost threw me in jail because I broke so many rules when writing this book.
No surrender. — I always carry a freak flag in my backpack, but never a white one.
New coke. — When you recreate yourself, make sure you improve upon the original.
Thinking of you, Donald. — He courted controversy and made love to the headlines.
Rainbow allusion. — Without a little pride, you ain’t ever going make it in The Castro.
When greeted by scorn, respond with a smile. Then chalk one up in your win column.
Dylan, not Bob. — I rage against the status quo like I do against the dying of the light.
Like the Swiss, I prudently maintain my neutrality so I can take money from both sides.
Sardonically, from a grandstand philosopher. — Don’t be a spectator. Participate in life.
I used to blame others for holding me down until I realized that I was the biggest culprit.
Shine, don’t whine. — It’s easy playing the victim. The hero is a much tougher role to fill.
The No Trespassing sign is what made me want to climb over the fence in the first place.
Moving metaphor. — The highest incidence of pedestrian deaths is young men in a hurry.
For a place that advertises free speech, it’s surprising to find such a narrow range of opinions.
All talk. — If I did half of what I was said was going to do, I’d be a world-historic figure by now.
We all have at least one or two hits hiding somewhere in us. Just got to get it down on vinyl, man.
I learned this lesson the hard way. Do not follow unless you want another dude’s ass in your face.
If we knew more about yesterday, we wouldn’t make so much ado about today. Learn your history.
The hawks have their claws finely sharpened before they go out and try to sell the doves security.
Concentrate on the grand design. Don’t engage in petty, small politics. Save that for the lilliputians.
We must be ourselves or else never feel at home. Go your own way even if it leads you over a cliff.
Fanfare for the Workingman. — That which we’ve earned with our own sweat is acquired free of guilt.
If you don’t take a chance, you’ll find yourself perpetually stuck in the same spot, wondering and muttering what if.
The guy with the blue chips isn’t usually the dude throwing the dice. But, then again. No balls, no blue chips.
By its very nature, greatness is excessive. The history books rarely recognize moderation. Go over the top and risk it all. Burn out. Don’t fade away.
With a teardrop in my eye, I closed the white-picket fence behind me and bid adieu to domestic felicity forever.
Before I’m ceremoniously thrown out of places, at least I have the pleasure of walking in as if I owned them.
Won’t get fooled again. — You ever notice how quickly the new movements start looking like the old schools.
The color of money. — You can learn a lot more about politics hustling in the pool hall than you can studying in the library.
While walking by a schoolyard the other day, I realized that it’s on the playground where the politics of life first emerge.
Forlorn hope. — I screamed with a rebel yell, “Revolution.” She soberly replied, “Then what?” I answered, “Probably Napoleon, but we can hope for George Washington.”
An experiment in self-government. — I tried to govern myself, but I couldn’t stand living under my thumb.
You never truly know the power of corruption until you stand breathtakingly on the threshold of its rewards. It’s only then that you realize how hard it is to say no.
They closed the American frontier, and here I stand with my back against the wall, going down valiantly with liberty and justice for all.
The Bitter End
Will he rest content in the grave
Knowing he took more than he gave
All his life he put himself first
Not once did he satisfy his thirst
Pride and self-love were his greatest sins
The fool lost everything he tried to win.