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Kurt Vonnegut Quotes - Page 10

All Quotes Accidents Age Alcohol Apologizing Army Art Atheism Atheist Belief Bitterness Business Chaos Character Chemistry Children Christ Church College Communication Community Compassion Competition Country Creativity Culture Curiosity Dancing Democracy Design Dignity Doubt Dying Earth Evil Evolution Expectations Feelings Fighting Food Forgiveness Frustration Fun Funny Giving God Happiness Hard Work Hate Heart Heaven Hell Hiroshima Home Humanity Hurt Ignorance Imagination Inspirational Jazz Jesus Laughter Life Literature Loneliness Love Luck Lying Making Love Management Maturity Meaning Of Life Military Mountain Music Nature Opportunity Pain Past Philosophy Politics Progress Purpose Reading Reality Religion Revenge Running Safety School Science Science Fiction Shame Sleep Smoking Socialism Son Soul Students Stupidity Style Survival Teaching Technology Time Today Trade Tragedy Train Universe Waiting Wall War Water Wife Work Writing

The two prime movers in the Universe are Time and Luck.

The two prime movers in the Universe are Time and Luck.

Two, Luck, Prime

Has any psychological experiment yielded a more delightful suggestion than this one: that there is a part of the mind without ambition or information, which nonetheless is expert on what is beautiful?

Beautiful, Ambition, Mind

"Chapter 8: Lines: Untitled", www.theguardian.com. November 14, 1985.

If you actually are an educated, thinking person, you will not be welcome in Washington, D.C. I know a couple of bright seventh graders who would not be welcome in Washington D.C.

Couple, Thinking, Welcome

Kurt Vonnegut (2011). “A Man Without a Country”, p.85, Seven Stories Press

Dr. Brainard Keyes Bullard, President of Wyandotte College, said in an address tonight that most of the worlds ills can be traced to the fact that Mans knowledge of himself has not kept pace with his knowledge of the physical world.

College, President, Drs

Kurt Vonnegut (2015). “The Big Trip Up Yonder”, p.5, Booklassic

The Earthlings behaved at all times as though there were a big eye in the sky—as though that big eye were ravenous for entertainment.

Eye, Sky, Entertainment

Kurt Vonnegut (2007). “The Sirens of Titan”, p.281, Dial Press

His mother understood my illness immediately, that it was my world rather than myself that was diseased.

Mother, World, Illness

Kurt Vonnegut (2009). “Mother Night: A Novel”, p.257, Dial Press

All this happened, more or less.

Slaughterhouse Five, Chaos, Slaughterhouse 5

Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.112, Infobase Publishing

Sometimes I wonder about the Creator of the Universe.

Sometimes, Wonder, Breakfast Of Champions

Kurt Vonnegut (1973). “Breakfast of champions: or, Goodbye blue Monday!”, Dell

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but the living room in your fortified compound.

Rooms, Living Room, Compounds

The planet was being destroyed by manufacturing processes, and what was being manufactured was lousy, by and large.

Earth, Breakfast Of Champions, Process

Kurt Vonnegut (1999). “Breakfast of Champions: Or, Goodbye Blue Monday!”, CNIB, 197

That's one thing Earthlings might learn to do, if they tried hard enough: Ignore the awful times and concentrate on the good ones.

Slaughterhouse Five, Might, Awful

Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.131, Infobase Publishing

I thought scientists were going to find out exactly how everything worked, and then make it work better. I fully expected that by the time I was twenty-one, some scientist, maybe my brother, would have taken a color photograph of God Almighty—and sold it to Popular Mechanics magazine. Scientific truth was going to make us so happy and comfortable. What actually happened when I was twenty-one was that we dropped scientific truth on Hiroshima.

Brother, Taken, Color

Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.47, Infobase Publishing

Vietnam was an exercise in mistaken idealism Iraq in cynical money-making. And there's no optimism or idealism now -- Americans are tired of knowledge. Our leaders, the C-students from Yale, know this. We're proud of being ignorant that leaves virtue at our core. We aren't frazzled by knowledge like foreigners, so we can be trusted.

Tired, Exercise, Yale

The women all had big minds because they were big animals, but they didn't use them for this reason: unusual ideas could make enemies and the women, if they were going to achieve any sort of comfort and safety, needed all the friends they could get. So, in the interest of survival they trained themselves to be agreeing machines. All their minds had to do was to discover what other people were thinking and then they thought it too.

Animal, Thinking, Ideas

We are never as modern, as far ahead of the past as we like to think we are.

Past, Thinking, Progress

Kurt Vonnegut (2009). “Mother Night: A Novel”, p.19, Dial Press

I'm mad about being old and I'm mad about being American. Apart from that, OK.

Mad, Being Old

"Vonnegut at 80". Interview with David Hoppe, www.nuvo.net. January 1, 2003.

Don't be reckless with other peoples hearts. And don't put up with people that are reckless with yours.

Love, Inspirational, Relationship

The library is full of stories of supposed triumphs which makes me very suspicious of it. It's misleading for people to read about great successes, since even for middle-class and upper-class white people, in my experience, failure is the norm.

Class, White, People

Kurt Vonnegut (2011). “Hocus Pocus”, p.27, Random House

The biggest truth to face now - what is probably making me unfunny now for the remainder of my life - is that I don't think people give a damn whether the planet goes or not. It seems to me as if everyone is living as members of Alcoholics Anonymous do, day by day. And a few more days will be enough. I know of very few people who are dreaming of a world for their grandchildren.

Dream, Grandchildren, Thinking

Kurt Vonnegut (2011). “A Man Without a Country”, p.70, Seven Stories Press

I think William Shakespeare was the wisest human being I ever heard of. To be perfectly frank, though, that's not saying much. We are impossibly conceited animals, and actually dumb as heck. Ask any teacher. You don't even have to ask a teacher. Ask anybody. Dogs and cats are smarter than we are.

Dog, Teacher, Cat

Kurt Vonnegut (1997). “Hocus Pocus”, p.104, Penguin

Sometimes I think it is a great mistake to have matter that can think and feel. It complains so.

Mistake, Thinking, Complaining

Kurt Vonnegut (2007). “The Sirens of Titan”, p.41, Dial Press

The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not.

Writing, Interesting, Revelations

Kurt Vonnegut (1982). “Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage”, Dell Books

I taught writing for a while and whenever somebody would tell me they were going to write about their dad, I would tell them they might as well go write about killing puppies because neither story was going to work. It just doesn't work.

Dad, Writing, Stories

"The Best Jokes Are Dangerous, An Interview with Kurt Vonnegut, Part Three". Interview with J. Rentilly, www.mcsweeneys.net. September 18, 2002.

I couldn't survive my own pessimism if I didn't have some kind of sunny little dream.

Dream, Littles, Kind

Kurt Vonnegut (1988). “Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut”, p.80, Univ. Press of Mississippi

I paraphrase Aristotle: If you want to be comical, write about people to whom the audience can feel superior; if you want to be tragical, write about at least one person to whom the audience is bound to feel inferior, and no fair having human problems solved by dumb luck or heavenly intervention.

Writing, People, Dumb

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