Faith & Spirit Quote by Charles Bukowski

Bukowski’s idea of the “free soul” isn’t a New Age compliment; it’s a back-alley litmus test. He doesn’t define freedom through politics, purity, or achievement. He defines it through proximity: your body knows. “You feel good, very good” is almost comically blunt, but that’s the point. Bukowski distrusted lofty language because it’s easily faked. A feeling, especially an involuntary one, is harder to counterfeit. The line works by refusing to intellectualize what he thinks is essentially animal-level truth: some people carry a kind of permission in them, and it changes the air in the room.

“Rare” does double duty. It flatters the type he’s praising, sure, but it also indicts the rest of us: most people are domesticated by routine, fear, bosses, lovers, booze, money, and the need to be liked. In Bukowski’s universe, a “free soul” isn’t necessarily morally good or socially polished. It’s someone unashamedly themselves, without the usual static of performance. That’s why the effect is physiological: being near them briefly cancels your own inner censor.

Context matters: Bukowski wrote from the long grind of low-wage work, hangovers, and institutional boredom, watching people get sanded down. Against that backdrop, freedom isn’t abstract liberation; it’s a rare human presence that makes you feel more alive, if only for a minute.