Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Quotes

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.

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.

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.

Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.

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.

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

Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.

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.

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

We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.

Plato says that the unexamined life is not worth living. But what if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well?

Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.

The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest.

You'll forget it when you're dead, and so will I. When I'm dead, I'm going to forget everything–and I advise you to do the same.

There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, I said, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.

How nice -- to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.

Somebody gets into trouble, then gets out of it again. People love that story. They never get tired of it.

And a step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.

Symbols can be so beautiful, sometimes.

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

Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been.

When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.

Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile.

Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

Maturity, the way I understand it, is knowing what your limitations are.

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.

Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I’ve said before, bugs in amber.

I asked this heroic pet lover how it felt to have died for a schnauzer named Teddy. Salvador Biagiani was philosophical. He said it sure beat dying for absolutely nothing in the Viet Nam War.

The most exquisite pleasure in the practice of medicine comes from nudging a layman in the direction of terror, then bringing him back to safety again.

No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious & charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful.

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

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

I wish you'd help me look into a more interesting problem - namely, my sanity.

Virtually every writer I know would rather be a musician.

When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlighenment and comfort at top speed

Pretend to be good always and even God will be fooled.

The primary benefit of practicing any art, whether well or badly, is that it enables one's soul to grow.

I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool.

Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?

If you can't write clearly, you probably don't think nearly as well as you think you do.

You can't just eat good food. You've got to talk about it too. And you've got to talk about it to somebody who understands that kind of food.

Here is the solution to the American drug problem suggested a couple years back by the wife of our President: "Just say no.

The biggest laughs are based on the biggest disappointments and the biggest fears.

There is no peace, I'm sorry to say. We find it. We lose it. We find it again. We lose it again.

Americans... are forever searching for love in forms it never takes, in places it can never be. It must have something to do with the vanished frontier.

I am eternally grateful for my knack of finding in great books, some of them very funny books, reason enough to feel honored to be alive, no matter what else might be going on.

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

Talent is extremely common. What is rare is the willingness to endure the life of the writer.

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

The worst thing that could possibly happen to anybody would be to not be used for anything by anybody. Thank you for using me, even though I didn't want to be used by anybody.