xy

@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“O Lord Most High, Creator of the Cosmos, Spinner of Galaxies, Soul of Electromagnetic Waves, Inhaler and Exhaler of Inconceivable Vacuum, Spitter of Fire and Rock, Trifler with Millennia—what could we do for Thee that Thou couldst not do for Thyself one octillion times better? Nothing. What could we do or say that could possibly interest Thee? Nothing. Oh, Mankind, rejoice in the apathy of our Creator, for it makes us free and truthful and dignified at last. No longer can a fool like Malachi Constant point to a ridiculous accident of good luck and say, ‘Somebody up there likes me.’ And no longer can a tyrant say, ‘God wants this or that to happen, and anybody who doesn’t help this or that to happen is against God.’ O Lord Most High, what a glorious weapon is Thy Apathy, for we have unsheathed it, have thrust and slashed mightily with it, and the claptrap that has so often enslaved us or driven us into the madhouse lies slain!”

Kurt Vonnegut book The Sirens of Titan

Source: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 10 “An Age of Miracles” (p. 215; epigram)

“My theory is that all women have hydrofluoric acid bottled up inside.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

On difficulties with women, as quoted in "Kurt Vonnegut, Writer of Classics of the American Counterculture, Dies at 84" by Dinitia Smith in The New York Times (11 April 2007) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/books/11cnd-vonnegut.html <br class="br">Various interviews

“Wars would be a lot better, I think, if guys would say to themselves sometimes "Jesus — I'm not going to do that to the enemy. That's too much."”

Kurt Vonnegut Happy Birthday, Wanda June

"Col. Looseleaf Harper"
Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970)

“What do men want? They want a lot of pals, and they wish that people wouldn’t get so mad at them.”

Kurt Vonnegut book God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian

God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (1999)

“Prologue, and a recurring phrase throughout the book.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Slapstick

Slapstick (1976)

“The name of the new religion,” said Rumfoord, “is The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent.
“The flag of that church will be blue and gold,” said Rumfoord. “These words will be written on that flag in gold letters on a blue field: Take Care of the People, and God Almighty Will Take Care of Himself.
“The two chief teachings of this religion are these,” said Rumfoord: “Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God.”

Kurt Vonnegut book The Sirens of Titan

Source: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 7 “Victory” (p. 180)

“Here was what Kilgore Trout cried out to me in my father's voice: "Make me young, make me young, make me young!"”

Kurt Vonnegut book Breakfast of Champions

Last line
Breakfast of Champions (1973)

““The worst thing that could possibly happen to anybody,” she said, “would be to not be used for anything by anybody.”… “Thank you for using me,” she said to Constant, “even though I didn’t want to be used by anybody.””

Kurt Vonnegut book The Sirens of Titan

Epilogue “Reunion with Stony” (pp. 310-311)
The Sirens of Titan (1959)

“I wish one and all long and happy lives, no matter what may become of them afterwards. Use sunscreen! Don’t smoke cigarettes. Cigars, however, are good for you … Firearms are also good for you … Gunpowder has zero fat and zero cholesterol. That goes for dumdums, too.”

Kurt Vonnegut book God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian

God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (1999)

“You know, in a way I wish I hadn’t met you two. It’s much more convenient to think of the opposition as a nice homogeneous, dead-wrong mass. Now I've got to muddy my thinking with exceptions.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Player Piano

Source: Player Piano (1952), Chapter 9 (p. 91)

“If you can do no good, at least do no harm.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Slapstick

Slapstick (1976)

“So it goes.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Slaughterhouse-Five

Recurring statement throughout the novel on the subject of life, death and mortal existence.
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)

“We are about to be attacked by Al Qaeda. Wave flags if you have them. That always seems to scare them away. I'm kidding.”

Kurt Vonnegut book A Man Without a Country

A Man Without a Country (2005)

“I don't like film. Film is too clankingly real, too permanent, too industrial for me. … The worst thing about film, from my point of view, is that it cripples illusions which I have encouraged people to create in their heads. Film doesn't create illusions. It makes them impossible. It's a bullying form of reality, like the model rooms in the furniture department of Bloomingdale's.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

"Preface"
Between Time and Timbuktu (1972)

“What is literature but an insider's newsletter about affairs relating to molecules, of no importance to anything in the Universe but a few molecules who have the disease called "thought."”

Kurt Vonnegut book Bluebeard

Source: Bluebeard (1987), p. 188

“Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus (1990)

“Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Mother Night

Mother Night (1961)

“If flying-saucer creatures or angels or whatever were to come here in a hundred years, say, and find us gone like the dinosaurs, what might be a good message for humanity to leave for them, maybe carved in great big letters on a Grand Canyon wall? Here is this old poop's suggestion: WE PROBABLY COULD HAVE SAVED OURSELVES, BUT WERE TOO DAMNED LAZY TO TRY VERY HARD…AND TOO DAMNED CHEAP.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

Fates Worse than Death (1991)

“I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

"Knowing What's Nice", an essay from In These Times (2003)
Various interviews

“High school is closer to the core of the American experience than anything else I can think of.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

Introduction to Our Time Is Now: Notes From the High School Underground, John Birmingham, ed. (1970)
Various interviews