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Life Quotes by Kurt Vonnegut

181 Life quotes by Kurt Vonnegut

All Life quotes Kurt Vonnegut’s page

Kurt Vonnegut notes that drawing can be a lifelong hobby that simply brings enjoyment, and that practicing any art helps the soul grow even without fame. He compares sudden shifts in life to unexpected dance lessons from a higher source. He also questions whether life is truly serious, leaving the answer open to each reader.

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I am better now. Word of honour: I am better now.

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Until you die .. it's all life.

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A man without a home can't be lost.

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Music is, to me, proof of the existence of God.

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... life, by definition, is never still.

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Take life seriously but none of the people in it.

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Life is no way to treat an animal.

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Love is where you find it.

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“Happiness is not a destination. It is a way of life.”

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In real life as in grand opera, arias only make hopeless situations worse.

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Everything about life is a joke. Don't you know that?

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“Life goes on- and a fool and his self respect are soon parted...”

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I now make my living by being impolite. I am clumsy at it.

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Humor is a way of holding off how awful life can be, to protect yourself.

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To the as-yet-unborn, to all innocent wisps of undifferentiated nothingness: Watch out for life.

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The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable.

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The feeling about a soldier is, when all is said and done, he wasn't really going to do very much with his…

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“Tralfamadorians, of course, say that every living creature and plant in the Universe is a machine. it amuses them that so many…

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“My God-- life! Who can understand even one little minute of it?' 'Don't try,' he said. 'Just pretend you understand.' 'That's-- that's…

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“Humor is a way of holding off how awful life can be, to protect yourself. Finally, you get just too tired, and…

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After that demonstration everybody was thinking, what's going to happen to these wonderful men who have been so useful to us? We…

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“What rioters, out of control, are really protesting about is life itself. Most people do not like it, it's humiliating for almost…

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There is one other book, that can teach you everything you need to know about life... it's The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor…

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“I pity the Jews trying to get through life with only half a Bible. That's like trying to get from here to…

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1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and…

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“What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at once.There is no beginning, no middle,…

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“Billy didn't want to marry ugly Valencia. She was one of the symptoms of his disease. He knew he was going crazy,…

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“The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains,…

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“She upset Billy simply by being his mother. She made him feel embarrased and ungrateful and weak because she had gone to…

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So many people think that practicing an art is a good way to make a living. Practicing an art, no matter how…

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“You finally fell in love, I see,” said Salo. “Only an Earthling year ago,” said Constant. “It took us that long to…

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“People who sell bolts and nuts and locomotives and frozen orange juice make billions, while the people who struggle to bring a…

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This world is not a vale of sorrows if you will recognize discriminatingly what is truly excellent in it; and if you…

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“Rosewater was twice as smart as Billy, but he and Billy were dealing with similar crises in similar ways. They had both…

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“Sometimes Alton Darwin would talk to me about the planet he was on before he was transported in a steel box to…

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It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can't get out of, but I think this…

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“The letter said that they were two feet high, and green, and shaped like plumber's friends. Their suction cups were on the…

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“The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still…

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If you want to really hurt you parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do…

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There was a message written in pencil on the tiles by the roller towel. This was it: What is the purpose of…

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More by Kurt Vonnegut

“You must bloom as a writer and I must bloom as a painter. Everything else about us is uninteresting.”

“People aren't supposed to look back.”

“Have a good nap, did you?” said the porter. “Yes,” said Billy. “Man,” said the porter, “you sure had a hard-on.”

“I told him that if we doubted that we are demons in Hell, he should read The Mysterious Stranger, which Mark Twain wrote in…

“Thomas Jefferson High School [..] His high school was named after a slave owner who was also one of the world’s greatest theoreticians on…

“I had a certain amount of skill as a dramatist, and Dr. Goebbels wanted me to use it”

I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around. Lucky me, lucky mud.

“The town was Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A., Earth, Solar System, Milky Way.”

“Her face was one of a kind, a surprising variation that made observers think, Yes--that would be another very nice way for people to…

“You finally fell in love, I see,” said Salo. “Only an Earthling year ago,” said Constant. “It took us that long to realize that…

“Like all Earthlings at the point of death, Mary Young sent faint reminders of herself to those who had known her. She released a…

“And contrast Mary Kathleen, if you will, with my wife Ruth, the Ophelia of the death camps, who believed that even the most intelligent…

Someday, someday, this crazy world will have to end, And our God will take things back that He to us did lend. And if,…

“They were going back to the slaughterhouse for souvenirs of the war.”

“There are plenty of good reasons for fighting," I said, "but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty…