Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was an American writer. In a career spanning over 50 years, Vonnegut published fourteen novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of non-fiction, with further collections being published after his death. This Kurt Vonnegut quotes will motivate you in life.
Best Kurt Vonnegut Quotes
- “True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. “Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon? Give me a break!” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “We’re terrible animals. I think that the Earth’s immune system is trying to get rid of us, as well it should.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
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“It’s a terrible waste to be happy and not notice it.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “There is a tragic flaw in our precious constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Unannounced changes in life’s itinerary are like dancing lessons from God.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Music is, to me, proof of the existence of God. It is so extraordinarily full of magic, and in tough times of my life I can listen to music and it makes such a difference.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
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“Hate, in the long run, is about as nourishing as cyanide.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves… It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut Quotes
- “Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies – “God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
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“There are too many of us and we are all too far apart.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Nobody will stop you from creating. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. That is the way to make your soul grow.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement. Because of their limited intelligence, they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “I don’t know what’s going on, and I’m probably not smart enough to understand if somebody was to explain it to me. All I know is we’re being tested somehow, by somebody or something a whole lot smarter than us, and all I can do is be friendly and keep calm and try and have a nice time till it’s over.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Socialism” is no more an evil word than “Christianity.” Socialism no more prescribed Joseph Stalin and his secret police and shuttered churches than Christianity prescribed the Spanish Inquisition. Christianity and socialism alike, in fact, prescribe a society dedicated to the proposition that all men, women, and children are created equal and shall not starve.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut Quotes
- “Nietzsche had a little one-liner on how to choose a wife. He said, ”Are you willing to have a conversation with this woman for the next forty years?” That’s how to pick a wife.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
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“Well here you are, there it is, THIS is what it’s all about.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “A book is an arrangement of twenty-six phonetic symbols, ten numerals, and about eight punctuation marks, and people can cast their eyes over these and envision the eruption of Mount Vesuvius or the Battle of Waterloo.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “There is love enough in this world for everybody, if people will just look.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
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“Everything is nothing, with a twist.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “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.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Science is magic that works.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Doesn’t anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools, or health insurance for all?” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Nobody will stop you from creating. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. That is the way to make your soul grow – whether there is a market for it or not! The kick of creation is the act of creating, not anything that happens afterward. I would tell all of you watching this screen: Before you go to bed, write a four-line poem. Make it as good as you can. Don’t show it to anybody. Put it where nobody will find it. And you will discover that you have your reward.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
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“The secret to success in any human endeavor is total concentration.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “During the Vietnam War, which lasted longer than any war we’ve ever been in – and which we lost – every respectable artist in this country was against the war. It was like a laser beam. We were all aimed in the same direction. The power of this weapon turns out to be that of a custard pie dropped from a stepladder six feet high.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Plato says that the unexamined life is not worth living. But what if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well?” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “The truth is, we know so little about life, we don’t really know what the good news is and what the bad news is.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut Quotes
- “‘You hate America, don’t you?’
‘That would be as silly as loving it,’ I said. ‘It’s impossible for me to get emotional about it, because real estate doesn’t interest me. It’s no doubt a great flaw in my personality, but I can’t think in terms of boundaries. Those imaginary lines are as unreal to me as elves and pixies. I can’t believe that they mark the end or the beginning of anything of real concern to a human soul. Virtues and vices, pleasures and pains cross boundaries at will.'” ~ Kurt Vonnegut -
“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “About belief or lack of belief in an afterlife: Some of you may know that I am neither Christian nor Jewish nor Buddist, nor a conventionally religious person of any sort. I am a humanist, which mean, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I’m dead.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “While on the subject of burning books, I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and destroyed records rather than have to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles. So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House of Representatives, or the media. The America I loved still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
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“I still catch myself feeling sad about things that don’t matter anymore.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “We are here on Earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
- “We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
