“History is merely a list of surprises. … It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again. Please write that down.”

—  Kurt Vonnegut , book Slapstick

Source: Slapstick (1976), Ch. 48

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "History is merely a list of surprises. … It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again. Please write that down." by Kurt Vonnegut?
Kurt Vonnegut photo
Kurt Vonnegut 318
American writer 1922–2007

Related quotes

“To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.”

James P. Carse American academic

Source: Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility

Orhan Pamuk photo
Eliezer Yudkowsky photo

“There are no surprising facts, only models that are surprised by facts”

Eliezer Yudkowsky (1979) American blogger, writer, and artificial intelligence researcher

Quantum explanations http://lesswrong.com/lw/pc/quantum_explanations/ (April 2008), part of his Quantum Physics Sequence http://lesswrong.com/lw/r5/the_quantum_physics_sequence/.
Context: There are no surprising facts, only models that are surprised by facts; and if a model is surprised by the facts, it is no credit to that model.

Wallace Stevens photo

“Poor, dear, silly Spring, preparing her annual surprise!”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

Journal entry (4 March 1906); as published in Souvenirs and Prophecies: the Young Wallace Stevens (1977) edited by Holly Stevens, Ch. 8

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“History is never surprising—after it happens.”

Logic of Empire (p. 333)
Short fiction, The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)

Kenneth Oppel photo
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet photo

“In the midst of the disguises and artifices that reign among men, it is only attention and vigilance that can save us from surprises.”

Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704) French bishop and theologian

Politics Drawn from the very words of Holy Scripture edited by Patrick Riley (1990) http://books.google.com/books?id=3jiGsoP_ExgC&pg=PA132&lpg=PA132&dq=%22In+the+midst+of+the+disguises+and+artifices+that+reign+among+men,+it+is+only+attention+and+vigilance+that+can+save+us+from+surprises.%22&source=bl&ots=4D_c7UqG_l&sig=22Djfz_VN-rbiENWgWqpn4s93KI&hl=en&ei=mDZ7S-vRHqX20wSg8t2pCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22In%20the%20midst%20of%20the%20disguises%20and%20artifices%20that%20reign%20among%20men%2C%20it%20is%20only%20attention%20and%20vigilance%20that%20can%20save%20us%20from%20surprises.%22&f=false
Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture (1709)

“Nothing is more surprising than the surprises of history, and nothing more untrustworthy than the uncritical extrapolation of the tendencies of the recent past.”

Lancelot Law Whyte (1896–1972) Scottish industrial engineer

Essay on Atomism: From Democritus to 1960 (1961), p.8

Related topics