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@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“Well, I just want to say that George W. Bush is the syphilis president.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

As quoted in "Kurt Vonnegut's 'Stardust Memory'" http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2006/1326, Harvey Wasserman, The Free Press (4 March 2006) <br class="br">Various interviews

“Don't lecture me on race relations. I don't have a molecule of prejudice. I've been in battle with every kind of man there is. I've been in bed with every kind of woman there is — from a Laplander to a Tierra del Fuegian. If I'd ever been to the South Pole, there'd be a hell of a lot of penguins who looked like me.”

Kurt Vonnegut Happy Birthday, Wanda June

"Harold Ryan"
Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970)

“Why throw money at problems? That's what money is for.
Should the nation's wealth be redistributed? It has been and continues to be redistributed to a few people in a manner strikingly unhelpful.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Timequake

Timequake (1997)

“People hate it when they're tickled because laughter is not pleasant, if it goes on too long. I think it's a desperate sort of convulsion in desperate circumstances, which helps a little.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

Interview Public Radio International (October 2006)
Various interviews

“Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed. Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, went bang in the noonday sun.”

Kurt Vonnegut book God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

Chapter 1 Page 4 http://miltonthed.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/1/6/14162844/vonnegut_kurt_-_god_bless_you_mr_rosewater.pdf <br class="br">God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965)

“What is it, what can it possibly be about blowjobs and golf?”

Kurt Vonnegut book A Man Without a Country

Martian Visitor
A Man Without a Country (2005)

“Everybody's shaking in his boots, so don't be bluffed.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Player Piano

Source: Player Piano (1952), Chapter 22 (p. 219)

“As far as I’m concerned,” said Constant, “the Universe is a junk yard, with everything in it overpriced. I am through poking around in the junk heaps, looking for bargains. Every so-called bargain,” said Constant, “has been connected by fine wires to a dynamite bouquet.”

Kurt Vonnegut book The Sirens of Titan

Source: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 12 “The Gentleman from Tralfamadore” (p. 290)

“Generally speaking, espionage offers each spy an opportunity to go crazy in a way he finds irresistible.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Mother Night

Mother Night (1961)

“In case you haven’t noticed, we are now almost as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

I Love You, Madame Librarian (2004)

“Napalm came from Harvard. Veritas!”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

I Love You, Madame Librarian (2004)

“This is my principal objection to life, I think: It is too easy, when alive, to make perfectly horrible mistakes.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Deadeye Dick

Source: Deadeye Dick (1982), p. 6

“You know, the truth can be really powerful stuff. You're not expecting it.”

Kurt Vonnegut book A Man Without a Country

A Man Without a Country (2005)

“It was in the nature of truly effective good-luck pieces that human beings never really owned them.”

Kurt Vonnegut book The Sirens of Titan

Source: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 12 “The Gentleman from Tralfamadore” (p. 301)

“I think that novels that leave out technology misrepresent life as badly as Victorians misrepresented life by leaving out sex.”

Kurt Vonnegut book A Man Without a Country

A Man Without a Country (2005)

““This husband of yours, he’d rather have his wife a— Rather, have her—” Halyard cleared his throat— “than go into public relations?”
“I’m proud to say,” said the girl, “that he’s one of the few men on earth with a little self-respect left.””

Kurt Vonnegut book Player Piano

Source: Player Piano (1952), Chapter 24 (p. 234)

“Nothing in this book is true.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Cat's Cradle

Cat's Cradle (1963)

“Where is home? I've wondered where home is, and I realized, it's not Mars or someplace like that, it's Indianapolis when I was nine years old. I had a brother and a sister, a cat and a dog, and a mother and a father and uncles and aunts. And there's no way I can get there again.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

As quoted in "The World according to Kurt" http://web.archive.org/web/20051018012956/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051011.wxvonnegut11/BNStory/Entertainment/ in Globe and Mail [Toronto] (11 October 2005) <br class="br">Various interviews

“You were sick, but now you're well, and there's work to do.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Timequake

Kilgore's Creed
Timequake (1997)

“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.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast of Champions (1973)