"There may not be a hell, but those who judge may create one. I think people are over-taught. They are over-taught everything. You have to find out by what happens to you, how you will react. I'll have to use a strange term here... good. I don't know where it comes from, but I feel that there's an ultimate strain of goodness born in each of us. I don't believe in God, but I believe in this goodness like a tube running through our bodies. It can be nurtured. It's always magic, when on a freeway packed with traffic, a stranger makes room for you to change lanes... it gives you hope"
About this Quote
His gripe about being “over-taught” reads like an attack on packaged virtue. Instruction becomes inoculation; people learn the right language, the approved opinions, the etiquette of goodness, without ever having to test their nerves in real conditions. Bukowski’s ethic is experiential and bodily. You don’t discover your character in a lecture; you discover it when you’re cornered, broke, tempted, humiliated. The line “I’ll have to use a strange term here... good” is doing double duty: it’s a self-mock, but also a confession that sincerity feels embarrassing in a culture of hard poses.
Then he smuggles in a private theology for an avowed atheist: goodness as a “tube” running through the body, something material, not celestial. It’s a very Bukowski compromise - no church, no commandments, just a stubborn current you can choose to nurture. The freeway anecdote matters because it’s aggressively unromantic: not love, not art, not redemption, just a stranger yielding space. That tiny mercy becomes proof-of-life. In his universe, hope doesn’t arrive as revelation; it slips in through a turn signal.
Quote Details
| Topic | Kindness |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bukowski, Charles. (2026, February 10). There may not be a hell, but those who judge may create one. I think people are over-taught. They are over-taught everything. You have to find out by what happens to you, how you will react. I'll have to use a strange term here... good. I don't know where it comes from, but I feel that there's an ultimate strain of goodness born in each of us. I don't believe in God, but I believe in this goodness like a tube running through our bodies. It can be nurtured. It's always magic, when on a freeway packed with traffic, a stranger makes room for you to change lanes... it gives you hope. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-may-not-be-a-hell-but-those-who-judge-may-185203/
Chicago Style
Bukowski, Charles. "There may not be a hell, but those who judge may create one. I think people are over-taught. They are over-taught everything. You have to find out by what happens to you, how you will react. I'll have to use a strange term here... good. I don't know where it comes from, but I feel that there's an ultimate strain of goodness born in each of us. I don't believe in God, but I believe in this goodness like a tube running through our bodies. It can be nurtured. It's always magic, when on a freeway packed with traffic, a stranger makes room for you to change lanes... it gives you hope." FixQuotes. February 10, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-may-not-be-a-hell-but-those-who-judge-may-185203/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There may not be a hell, but those who judge may create one. I think people are over-taught. They are over-taught everything. You have to find out by what happens to you, how you will react. I'll have to use a strange term here... good. I don't know where it comes from, but I feel that there's an ultimate strain of goodness born in each of us. I don't believe in God, but I believe in this goodness like a tube running through our bodies. It can be nurtured. It's always magic, when on a freeway packed with traffic, a stranger makes room for you to change lanes... it gives you hope." FixQuotes, 10 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-may-not-be-a-hell-but-those-who-judge-may-185203/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
