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 39 of 49)

978 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
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"When I worked with General Electric, again this was soon after the Second World War, you know, I was keeping up with new developments and they showed me a milling machine and this thing worked by punch cards - that's where computers were at that time, and everybody was sort of sheepish about how well this thing worked because in those days machinists were treated as though they were great musicians because they were virtuosos on these machines."

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"The person who writes the bank's commercials is not the person who makes the loans."

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"There is no way a beautiful woman can live up to what she looks like for any appreciable length of time."

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"I found me a place where I can do good without doing any harm, and I can see I'm doing good, and them I'm doing good for know I'm doing it, and they love me, Unk, as best they can. I found me a home."

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"It is harder to be unhappy when you are eating."

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"I have no culture, no humane harmony in my brains. I can't live without a culture anymore."

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"You realize, of course, that everything I say is horseshit."

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"This is what i find most encouraging about the writing trades: they allow mediocre people who are patient and industrious to revise their stupidity, to edit themselves into something like intelligence. They also allow lunatics to seem saner than sane."

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"We were German-Americans in a British colony, so we were outsiders."

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"We were into the Speedway. We'd take a train out to the Speedway where farmers had flatbed trucks with bleachers on them. They'd park in the infield and we'd sit on those. Our heroes weren't the drivers, they were the pit crews. That's because we were local, and we knew what was going on."

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"All the new technology seems redundant to me. I was quite happy with the United States mail service. And, I don't even have an answering machine, for God's sake."

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"A committee of three can accomplish much if two don't show up."

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"I saw a huge steam roller, It blotted out the sun. The people all lay down, lay down; They did not try to run. My love and I, we looked amazed Upon the gory mystery. "Lie down, lie down!" the people cried. "The great machine is history!" My love and I, we ran away, The engine did not find us. We ran up to a mountain top, Left history far behind us. Perhaps we should have stayed and died, But somehow we don't think so. We went to see where history'd been, And my, the dead did stink so."

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"It shook up Trout to realize that even he could bring evil into the world — in the form of bad ideas."

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"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."

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"The polls demonstrate that 50 percent of Americans who get their news from TV think Saddam Hussein was behind the Twin Towers attack. Man, have they got ways for getting half-truths out right away now, thanks to TV! I think TV is a calamity in a democracy."

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"Bill Gates says, 'Wait till you can see what your computer can become.' But it’s you who should be doing the becoming. What you can become is the miracle you were born to work-not the damn fool computer."

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"Hitler at the end thought that he himself was one more casualty in the war."

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