Life & Wisdom Quote by Charles Bukowski

Bukowski’s genius here is how quickly he punctures the self-help halo around “success” and replaces it with something uglier and more believable: moral risk. The line opens like a warning and lands like a barstool verdict. “Always dangerous” isn’t motivational; it’s fatalistic, delivered with the certainty of someone who’s watched victories rot people from the inside out. Then he goes for the crude knockout: “asshole”. Not a clinical term for ego inflation, but the everyday word for the person who starts treating others as props.

The intent is less to condemn achievement than to expose what it licenses. Success doesn’t just reward; it rearranges power. It creates a small kingdom where you’re insulated from consequences, surrounded by yes-men, and tempted to rewrite your personality as destiny. Bukowski’s subtext is that character isn’t revealed by struggle alone; it’s stress-tested by comfort, attention, and the permission slip of status. The phrase “out of anybody” is doing heavy lifting: no saints, no exemptions, no heroic narratives. If you think you’re immune, you’re already auditioning for the role.

Context matters because Bukowski built a persona out of refusing polite society’s prize system. He wrote from the gutters of labor, booze, and failure, suspicious of institutions that turn humans into brands. Coming from him, this isn’t envy dressed up as wisdom; it’s a prophylactic against delusion. The bite is also self-directed: success didn’t arrive for Bukowski until later, and he knew acclaim could be just another way to lose your grip, only this time with applause.