Kurt Vonnegut

Novelist, Satirist

Kurt Vonnegut was an American author known for his satirical novels, particularly 'Slaughterhouse-Five', which critiques war and explores human existence.

Born
November 11, 1927
Died
April 11, 2007
Quotes
978
Rank
#85

Quote collection

Kurt Vonnegut quotes (page 15 of 49)

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Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
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"But some of the nonsense was evil, since it concealed great crimes. For example, teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date on blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize it with pride and joy: 1492. The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them."

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Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
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"Music is, to me, proof of the existence of God."

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"bergeron's epitaph for the planet, i remember, which he said should be carved in big letters in a wall of the grand canyon for the flying-saucer people to find was this: WE COULD HAVE SAVED IT, BUT WE WERE TOO DOGGONE CHEAP. only he didn't say "doggone."

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"I just don't think people get off on language anymore. Language used to be an elevated art. It used to be for people what music can be. But people don't learn to do that anymore, so eloquence is merely a matter of waste. Who needs a good vocabulary and proper English? Eloquence - it's dead and who needs it?"

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"There is no shortage of wonderful writers. What we lack is a dependable mass of readers."

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

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"No one can amount to a damn in the arts if he becomes sweetly reasonable, seeing all sides of a picture, forgiving all sins."

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"Any scientist who can't explain to an eight-year-old what he is doing is a charlatan."

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"It's all like an ocean!" cried Dostoevski. I say it's all like cellophane."

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"Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for."

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"There is no peace, I'm sorry to say. We find it. We lose it. We find it again. We lose it again."

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"Music makes practically everybody fonder of life than he or she would be without it."

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"There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind."

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"Americans... are forever searching for love in forms it never takes, in places it can never be. It must have something to do with the vanished frontier."

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"The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries."

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