Henry Lawrence Garfield, better known as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actor, presenter, comedian, and activist. Profoundly inspirational Henry Rollins quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
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Famous Henry Rollins Quotes
Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better. Henry Rollins
It hurts to let go. Sometimes it seems the harder you try to hold on to something or someone the more it wants to get away. You feel like some kind of criminal for having felt, for having wanted. For having wanted to be wanted. It confuses you, because you think that your feelings were wrong and it makes you feel so small because it’s so hard to keep it inside when you let it out and it doesn’t coma back. You’re left so alone that you can’t explain. Damn, there’s nothing like that, is there? I’ve been there and you have too. You’re nodding your head. Henry Rollins
You need a little bit of insanity to do great things. Henry Rollins
I’ll never forget how the depression and loneliness felt good and bad at the same time. Still does. Henry Rollins
Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength, move on. Henry Rollins
Life will not break your heart. It’ll crush it. Henry Rollins
Don’t do anything by half. If you love someone, love them with all your soul. When you go to work, work your ass off. When you hate someone, hate them until it hurts. Henry Rollins
Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better. Henry Rollins
Change is hard, but change is good. Henry Rollins
Somewhere someone is thinking of you. Someone is calling you an angel. This person is using celestial colors to paint your image. Someone is making you into a vision so beautiful that it can only live in the mind. Someone is thinking of the way your breath escapes your lips when you are touched. How your eyes close and your jaw tightens with concentration as you give pleasure a home. These thoughts are saving a life somewhere right now. In some airless apartment on a dark, urine stained, whore lined street, someone is calling out to you silently and you are answering without even being there. So crystalline. So pure. Such life saving power when you smile. You will never know how you have cauterized my wounds. So sad that we will never touch. How it hurts me to know that I will never be able to give you everything I have. Henry Rollins
We all learn lessons in life. Some stick, some don’t. I have always learned more from rejection and failure than from acceptance and success. Henry Rollins
Girls aren’t beautiful, they’re pretty. Beautiful is too heavy a word to assign to a girl. Women are beautiful because their faces show that they know they have lost something and picked up something else. Henry Rollins
Live music is the cure for what ails ya. Henry Rollins
I want a soul mate who can sit me down, shut me up, tell me ten things I don’t already know, and make me laugh. I don’t care what you look like, just turn me on. And if you can do that, I will follow you on bloody stumps through the snow. I will nibble your mukluks with my own teeth. I will do your windows. I will care about your feelings. Just have something in there. Henry Rollins
When people hold you in high esteem, it’s very delicate relationship. When they meet you they’re putting all their chips up. It’s make or break. Henry Rollins
Half of life is fucking up, the other half is dealing with it. Henry Rollins
When I’m off the road, and I can really control my diet down to the calorie, I juice seven days a week. Every afternoon, whatever I have at hand, beets, carrots, ginger, whatever. I juice, literally, every single day. And on the road, I try to find fresh juice wherever I can. Henry Rollins
Don’t do anything by half. If you love someone, love them with all your soul. When you go to work, work your ass off. When you hate someone, hate them until it hurts. Henry Rollins
The only difference between me and others is that they think they can change something with cute little poems, nice cards or embracing trees and being nice to little lapdogs. Henry Rollins
I definitely learned a lesson this time. I know that I can be broken. I am not as tough as I thought. I see it now. At this point, it’s the only thing good that came out of all of this. I know myself better now and know what I have to do. Henry Rollins
If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light, If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you. Henry Rollins
I think about the meaning of pain. Pain is personal. It really belongs to the one feeling it. Probably the only thing that is your own. I like mine. Henry Rollins
If the Constitution was a movie, the Preamble would be the trailer, the First Amendment the establishing shot, the 13th the crowd pleaser and the 14th the ultimate hero scene. Henry Rollins
I am ready for whatever’s coming. I expect nothing but to be let down or turned away. I am alone. Goddamn. The shit hurts sometimes, but I realize what I am, what I have become. Henry Rollins
I am an optimist because I want to change things for the better and I know that blood has to be spilled and disharmony and cruelty are necessary to do that. Henry Rollins
If you hate your parents, the man or the establishment, don’t show them up by getting wasted and wrapping your car around a tree. If you really want to rebel against your parents, out learn them, outlive them, and know more than they do. Henry Rollins
Everything I do, writing, touring, travelling, it all comes from the punk and hardcore attitude, from that expression from being open to try things but relying on yourself, taking what you have into the battle and making of it what you will, hoping you can figure it out as you go. Make some sense of it. Henry Rollins
It is sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew. Henry Rollins
That Newt Gingrich or any mainstream Republican has the nerve to look down from what they perceive as their moral mountaintop at anyone is laughable. Henry Rollins
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud. Henry Rollins
I was at the first Minor Threat show, and you could tell, This band is going to be the king of the town. It was obvious. They were so good. Henry Rollins
If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you. Henry Rollins
I have been curious about Haiti for many years. The history of the country is as fascinating as it is turbulent. Henry Rollins
Do it or don’t. It’s amazing how many things in life are that easy. Henry Rollins
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud. Henry Rollins
They say true love only comes around once and you have to hold out and be strong until then. I have been waiting. I have been searching. I am a man under the moon, walking the streets of earth until dawn. There’s got to be someone for me. It’s not too much to ask. Just someone to be with. Someone to love. Someone to give everything to. Someone. Henry Rollins
Sometimes the truth hurts. And sometimes it feels real good. Henry Rollins
The moon will never lie to anyone. Be like the moon. No one hates the moon or wants to kill it. The moon does not take antidepressants and never gets sent to prison. The moon never shot a guy in the face and ran away. The moon has been around a long time and has never tried to rip anyone off. The moon does not care who you want to touch or what color you are. The moon treats everyone the same. The moon never tries to get in on the guest list or use your name to impress others. Be like the moon. When others insult or belittle in an attempt to elevate themselves, the moon sits passively and watches, never lowering itself to anything that weak. The moon is beautiful and bright. It needs no makeup to look beautiful. The moon never shoves clouds out of its way so it can be seen. The moon needs not fame or money to be powerful. The moon never asks you to go to war to defend it. Be like the moon. Henry Rollins
Yes, I guess you could say I am a loner, but I feel more lonely in a crowed room with boring people than I feel on my own. Henry Rollins
Love heals scars love left. Henry Rollins
Keep your blood clean, your body lean, and your mind sharp. Henry Rollins
Knowledge without mileage equals bullshit. Henry Rollins
I don’t believe in fate or destiny. I believe in various degrees of hatred, paranoia, and abandonment. However much of that gets heaped upon you doesn’t matter it’s only a matter of how much you can take and what it does to you. Henry Rollins
You forgave me in a dream the other night. The more you told me it was alright, the worse I felt. I know that you were only doing it because you knew I couldnt possibly hurt you more than I already had. I could see what forgiving me was doing to you. I know that you think I’m to stupid to figure it all out. When you forgave me, you knew that it was finally over. The pain would leave me, I would forget you and you would never see me again except in a dream. It is sad that the things that we saw in each other are no longer there. It is a shame that we tore each other apart looking for things that we needed desperately but could never find. It is tragic that we only wanted to give each other but only stole from ourselves and blamed each other for the emptiness in our lives. I see you differently now. I no longer fear you. It took years to see you for what you really are. Henry Rollins
Questioning anything and everything, to me, is punk rock. Henry Rollins
I get tired of talking when I want to be silent. Henry Rollins
I love capitalism. It rewards me for being brave it awards me for being innovative and thinking out of the box. Henry Rollins
Hope is the last thing a person does before they are defeated. Henry Rollins
Adolescence is a plague on the senses. Henry Rollins
I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone. Henry Rollins
I consider any gun that can chamber a round and send a projectile down its barrel at a high rate of speed into my body causing me injury or death to be an assault weapon. Henry Rollins
When life hands you a lemon, say, Oh yeah, I like lemons! What else ya got? Henry Rollins
Where there is young people and vitality, you’re going to find punk rock. Henry Rollins
Gay people don’t have a personality problem. They have a problem with small minded motherfuckers who can’t conquer a 1 inch high curb. Henry Rollins
I am on until I am dead, like a light bulb. Henry Rollins
Nothing brings people together more than mutual hatred. Henry Rollins
As a young person growing up in Washington, D.C., summers were hot, humid and relentless. My friends and I grew more restless and adventurous with every passing year. Henry Rollins
You have to get away from them. You have to get as far away as you can otherwise they’ll kill you with their lives. They don’t know what they do. They are careless with themselves and they take too much for granted. They make their shortcomings your problem. The only way to keep your head above it and heal your wounds is to crawl away. Henry Rollins
I have come to regard November as the older, harder man’s October. I appreciate the early darkness and cooler temperatures. It puts my mind in a different place than October. It is a month for a quieter, slightly more subdued celebration of summer’s death as winter tightens its grip. Henry Rollins
Yes, I guess you could say I am a loner but I feel more lonely in a crowed room with boring people than I feel on my own. Henry Rollins
When you start to doubt yourself the real world will eat you alive. Henry Rollins
Best not to mix the past with the present. The present paints the past with gold. The past paints the present with lead. Henry Rollins
The prison industrial complex and the military industrial complex are here with us and are multi billion dollar enterprises. We can make more money off the kid in Compton if he’s a criminal instead of a scholar. It’s business. Henry Rollins
Sometimes it seems the harder you try to hold onto something or someone the more it wants to get away. You feel like some kind of criminal for having felt, for having wanted. For having wanted to be wanted. It confuses you because you think that your feelings were wrong and it makes you feel so small because it’s so hard to keep it inside when you let it out and it doesn’t come back. You’re left so alone that you can’t explain. Henry Rollins
I mean I appreciate fan mail and that the people like what I am doing but I can’t answer it. If I would answer 25 letters a day I would be just a guy answering mail and not an artist anymore. Henry Rollins
I could fall in love with a cruel desert that kills without passion, a canyon full of scorpions, one thousand blinding arctic storms, a century sealed in a cave, a river of molten salt flowing down my throat. But never with you. Henry Rollins
I wonder how Colin Powell sleeps at night. I would like to have a word with him because he lied. He lied. He lied to me. He lied to my face through the camera at the U.N. Henry Rollins
What I felt for you was a combination of respect and affection. There was a closeness I felt through intimate interaction. The affection part is all over with. All that remains is the respect. If I put my arms around you and told you that I missed you, I would be lying. You’re alright with me and I wish you well. But you’re not me and that makes you one of them and you can only get so close. Henry Rollins
I think it is incumbent on anyone who can to lift human dignity to the highest possible levels, maintaining one’s own and helping to raise that of others. Henry Rollins
I do my best to limit the amount of compromise in my life so I have more time to do what I want. Not hanging out with many people really helps. I am not a people person and I spend a great deal of time on my own and in this environment, I get a lot done. Henry Rollins
I forged myself out of a vacuum. I crawl along the highway on hacked off stumps year after year. Some wonder how and why. I never do. Henry Rollins
I know you’ll never love me but maybe you’ll stay for awhile. Henry Rollins
August in sub Saharan Los Angeles is one of the great and awful tests of one’s endurance, sanity and stamina. Henry Rollins
My love is a thousand French poets puking black blood on your Cure CD collection. Henry Rollins
I like boring black and white films with subtitles. I’m basically a drip. Henry Rollins
Is there anything here I can call my own? A feeling? A moment? Anything? Will there ever be a time when I am truly loved? When I’ll know it and not wonder if it’s real? Is there something I can protect and love and care about? Is there a truth I can keep that has no fear attached? Will there ever be a time when I can be somewhere and it will feel like home? Will there ever be a time when I will look around me and know I am finally in the place I am supposed to be? Is there anything here, anything I can see, while I breathe and breathe, trying to stay alive long enough to just be able to be here and know that I am here? Not just any here but the here I am supposed to be in. Is there anything that I can call mine that will not eventually be take from me? Is there anything, anyone, ever? Henry Rollins
Weakness is what brings ignorance, cheapness, racism, homophobia, desperation, cruelty, brutality, all these things that will keep a society chained to the ground, one foot nailed to the floor. Henry Rollins
If there was a god, he wouldn’t let a guy walk right up and shoot you in the face now would he? That’s right, now you get the picture. Truth burns doesn’t it? Henry Rollins
I’ve been in Iraq, and it never occurred to me to go, Hey, this war is bogus, to some guy who’s 24 hours a day trying not to get shot at or blown up. Henry Rollins
It’s hard to get along with people. As much as you try to like them and accept them as individuals, it becomes difficult because they keep getting out of line and wasting your time. Henry Rollins
It’s sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew. Henry Rollins
Yes, I guess you could say I am a loner, but i feel more lonely in a crowded room with boring people then i feel on my owm. Henry Rollins
In winter, I plot and plan. In spring, I move. Henry Rollins
How memories lie to us. How time coats the ordinary with gold. How it breaks the heart to go back and attempt to re live them. How crushed we are when we discover that the gold was merely gold plating thinly coated over lead, chalk and peeling paint. Henry Rollins
Hope is the last thing a person does before they are defeated. Henry Rollins
Why do you think the old stories tell of men who set out on great journeys to impress the gods? Because trying to impress people just isn’t worth the time and effort. Henry Rollins
I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone. Henry Rollins
I want you bad like a natural disaster. You are all I see. You are the only one I want to know. Henry Rollins
When you are young, there is so much ahead of you, it’s like the Saharan desert. You can’t even see across it. Henry Rollins
You can get what you want. Never sell out. Don’t break. Don’t weaken. Don’t let the kindness of strangers be your salvation, for it is no salvation at all. Unless you sleep alone, you sleep with the enemy. Never come out of the storm. On the other hand, maybe you should. You don’t have what it takes to go the hard way. Come out of the cold and sit by the fire. Let them warm you with the smiles and promise of friendship’s fortune. Lose your edge. A soft body and chained mind suit you. Chances are you don’t have what it takes to walk the frozen trail. Stay home and relax. Henry Rollins
There is not one single police officer in America that I am not afraid of and not one that I would trust to tell the truth or obey the laws they are sworn to uphold. I do not believe they protect me in any way. Henry Rollins
Somewhere, someone isn’t impressed by your looks. Not all men jump through the hoops of your fire. You’re unbelievably boring to more people than you’ll ever know. Henry Rollins
Nothing brings people together more, then mutual hatred. Henry Rollins
I’m packed with broken glass and memories and it all hurts. Henry Rollins
Pizza makes me think that anything is possible. Henry Rollins
Don’t hide behind the Constitution or the Bible. If you’re against gay marriage, just be honest, put a scarlet H on your shirt, and say, I am a homophobe! Henry Rollins
When someone asks you, What’s punk? my reply is, If you have to ask, you’re never going to know. Henry Rollins
I am talking about ultimate deceit. I am talking about unparalleled treachery. Bottomless lies. Depths that are seen that are previously unimaginable. Darkness and shattering despair that could break bones. Paranoia and horror that could stop the heart cold. All inflicted on one’s self by one’s self. The soul turns schizophrenic and goes hopelessly insane. Henry Rollins
I once asked Ozzy Osbourne, truly one of my favorite people in the world, if he was cool with singing Black Sabbath songs year after year, whether he was performing with Black Sabbath or out on a solo tour. He said it was great. Henry Rollins
I look at pictures of you because I am afraid that you would notice me staring in real life. I looked at your picture today for countless minutes. It is closer than I’ll ever get to you for real. I felt like I was looking at a captured animal at a safe distance. If you knew I was doing this, you would feel sickened and frightened. That’s why you’ll never know. Years will go by and you’ll never know. I will never say the things that I want to say to you. I know the damage it would do. I love you more than I hate my loneliness and pain. Henry Rollins
Consumerism is at once the engine of America and simultaneously one of the most revealing indicators of our collective shallowness. Henry Rollins
Sometimes I wish I could be like Teflon. I always admired that stuff. Water beads up on it and slides off, nothing sticks. You gotta have a little of that to be able to deal with what’s out there. But. Teflon takes a shot and shows the damage. It cannot heal itself. That is our strength we can heal. We can make ourselves stronger. You can be a bright light in a sea of shit, doesn’t matter how big the light is as long as it shines. Get a hold of some of that and don’t blow your brains out no matter how good an idea it sounds like at the time. Like when you wake up around three in the morning panicking from an attack from some unseen horror and you want to get out so bad. Henry Rollins
I’ve been on Jay Leno, and everyone likes Jay, but being on that show is a really boring afternoon. I sincerely like Jay, but I wouldn’t want his job, because I’d have to interview Kathy Ireland, and there’s nothing there I’d want to know. Henry Rollins
You can find me in the frozen mood section. Henry Rollins
I urge you to read the Occupy Manifesto, written by the New York City General Assembly. It is unavoidably clear. This is not directionless action. If it were, the media would have moved on. Henry Rollins
I would like to be able to gently drift in and out of existence when I wanted to. Henry Rollins
If I were a doctor, I would prescribe that you addict yourself deeply and irrevocably to music and never, ever seek cure outside of more music. It really is the best drug available. Henry Rollins
I got my heart broken. My spirit got shattered and mutilated. I will not be coming back from this. I don’t want to. Henry Rollins
As a young person, I wanted everyone to agree with me. Henry Rollins
Anyone who wants to help me doesn’t. Anyone who wants to kill me might. Anyone who wants to love me better not. Henry Rollins
There is no place in the world like Australia. Not even its beautiful neighbor New Zealand. Henry Rollins
My feelings for you shame me into silence. Henry Rollins
I think young people should travel and travel often to other countries. like I do. Henry Rollins
Sometimes it’s not catastrophic. Sometimes you only come to the bottom of your coffee cup. Sometimes you have a good day. No one wants to know. No one wants to tell you about theirs either. You might somehow take it. Turn it against them. See the flaw. You always tell them the whole thing sucks. It keeps you alive. They figure if you’re out there having a rotten time, everything’s fine and you’re doing your part. No one will ever try to take your bad times away from you but they’ll come swarming for your happiness. Henry Rollins
We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer’s wreckage. We will welcome summer’s ghost. Henry Rollins
Is it a shame that I can’t accept love? Am I too burned out to move towards what will keep me alive or too smart to get pulled into someone else’s world? Henry Rollins
There’s tons of junk food for your mind on the Internet. You can sit there for three or 10 or 20 hours a day getting in online arguments with other people who also choose to waste their time. Henry Rollins
My dick is a macho shithead but the rest of me is a sensitive, caring and gentle guy. Henry Rollins
Life will not break your heart. It’ll crush it. Henry Rollins
