Kurt Vonnegut

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Kurt Vonnegut (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer and humorist known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction works; further collections have been published after his death.

Quotes from Kurt Vonnegut

A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.

—Kurt Vonnegut in The Sirens of Titan

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love life purpose

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Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.

—Kurt Vonnegut

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humor laughter maturity disappointment remedy

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There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind.

—Kurt Vonnegut in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

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life kindness rules

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I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all.

—Kurt Vonnegut in The Sirens of Titan

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accidents existence coincidence

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

—Kurt Vonnegut

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fear power humor leadership terror peers

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Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.

—Kurt Vonnegut

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criticism triviality

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Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before... He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.

—Kurt Vonnegut

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ignorance learning knowledge work effort resentment

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One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.

—Kurt Vonnegut

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entertainment change death television

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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

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happiness nice pleasant

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Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything.

—Kurt Vonnegut

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maturity age comfort

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Writing allows even a stupid person to seem halfway intelligent, if only that person will write the same thought over and over again, improving it just a little bit each time. It is a lot like inflating a blimp with a bicycle pump. Anybody can do it. All it takes is time.

—Kurt Vonnegut

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intelligence writing refinement

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There are plenty of good reasons for fighting . . . but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too. Where's evil? It's that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side.

—Kurt Vonnegut

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hate God evil fighting

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

—Kurt Vonnegut

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build maintenance

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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

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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

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Books

Kurt Vonnegut has the following books quoted on Quodid: