Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

Science is magic that works.... -Kurt Vonnegut

Still and all, why bother? Here's my answer. Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.

I was a chemistry major, but I'm always winding up as a teacher in English departments, so I've brought scientific thinking to literature. There's been very little gratitude for this.

I was not an anthropology student prior to the war. I took it up as part of a personal readjustment following some bewildering experiences as an infantryman and later as a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany. The science of the Study of Man has been extremely satisfactory from that personal standpoint.

Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself. But mankind wasn't always so lucky. Less than a century ago, men and women did not have easy access to the puzzle boxes within them.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

I'm screamingly funny, you know, I really am in the books. And that helps because I'm funnier than a lot of people, I think, and that's appreciated by young people.

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.

If people think nature is their friend, then they ... -Kurt Vonnegut

If people think nature is their friend, then they sure don't need an enemy.

The year was 2081, and everyone was finally equal.

Discovering the context

This quote presents a futuristic scenario where absolute equality is achieved by society. It implies that in this fictional world, all forms of inequality have been eradicated. It reflects on the concept of a utopian society where equality is the prevailing norm.

There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.

As a Humanist, I love science. I hate superstition... -Kurt Vonnegut

As a Humanist, I love science. I hate superstition, which could never have given us A-bombs.

I am honorary President of the American Humanist Society, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that utterly functionless capacity. We Humanists behave as well as we can, without any rewards or punishments in an Afterlife.

When I'm being funny, I try not to offend. I don't think much of what I've done has been in really ghastly taste. I don't think I have embarrassed many people or distressed them.

We could have saved the Earth but we were too damn... -Kurt Vonnegut

We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap.

Science sent the Hubble telescope out into space, so it could capture light and the absence thereof, from the very beginning of time. And the telescope really did that. So now we know that there was once absolutely nothing, such a perfect nothing that there wasn't even nothing or once.

I hope to build a reputation as a science-fiction ... -Kurt Vonnegut

I hope to build a reputation as a science-fiction writer. That's the pitch. We'll see.

Discovering the context

The quote expresses a desire or aspiration to establish oneself as a respected science-fiction writer, acknowledging the uncertainty of achieving that goal and implying a wait-and-see attitude.

Oh, sure, we have another world war coming, and another great depression, but where are the leaders this time?

I had no talent for science. What was infinitely w... -Kurt Vonnegut

I had no talent for science. What was infinitely worse: all my fraternity brothers were engineers.

This country is being managed to death, being publ... -Kurt Vonnegut

This country is being managed to death, being public related to death.

I get up at 7:30 and work four hours a day. Nine to twelve in the morning, five to six in the evening. Businessmen would achieve better results if they studied human metabolism. No one works well eight hours a day. No one ought to work more than four hours.

What troubles me most about my lovely country is that its children are seldom taught that American freedom will vanish, if, when they grow up, and in the exercise of their duties as citizens, they insist that our courts and policemen and prisons be guided by divine or natural law.

The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake.

All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.

When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlightenment and comfort at top speed.

There is love enough in this world for everybody, ... -Kurt Vonnegut

There is love enough in this world for everybody, if people will just look.

I consider anybody a twerp who hasn't read 'Democracy in America' by Alexis de Tocqueville. There can never be a better book than that one on the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in our form of government.

Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

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