Portrait of Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five

Modern influential 116 sayings

Sayings by Kurt Vonnegut

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

1961 — Mother Night
Wisdom Confirmed

And 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.'

2005 — A Man Without a Country
Wisdom Confirmed

So it goes.

1969 — Slaughterhouse-Five (recurring phrase)
Wisdom Confirmed

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

1981 — Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage
Educational Confirmed

We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane.

1973 — Breakfast of Champions
Wisdom Unverifiable

Mankind has been making a mess of things for a long time.

1969 — Slaughterhouse-Five
Power & Leadership Unverifiable

You are a human being, and you should be allowed to make mistakes.

Various — Interview, often expressed sentiment
Wisdom Unverifiable

The only good thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.

Unknown — Attributed, but exact source is elusive. Common sentiment.
Wisdom Unverifiable

I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you any different.

2005 — A Man Without a Country
Art & Creativity Confirmed

What are people for? They are for each other.

1990 — Hocus Pocus
Wisdom Unverifiable

A sane person to an insane society must appear insane.

Various — From various works, a recurring theme.
Wisdom Confirmed

The America I grew up in was a country that made things. It made cars and steel and refrigerators and washing machines and television sets. Now we make money. We make money by moving money around.

2005 — A Man Without a Country
Money & Business Unverifiable

Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.

1963 — Cat's Cradle
Biblical Unverifiable

You can't fight for your life and have a good time.

1969 — Slaughterhouse-Five
War & Conflict Unverifiable

There is no order in the world, only arrangements.

1959 — The Sirens of Titan
Wisdom Unverifiable

Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.

1969 — Slaughterhouse-Five
Wisdom Unverifiable

I have long suspected that the more a man is a man, the more he is a child.

1952 — Player Piano
Wisdom Unverifiable

How nice — to feel nothing, and to be a fair sample of a sturdy American boy.

1969 — Slaughterhouse-Five
Wisdom Unverifiable

You'll be the first to die, if you don't take a bath, you'll be the first to die.

1963 — Cat's Cradle
Wisdom Unverifiable

The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest.

2005 — A Man Without a Country
Wisdom Confirmed
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