I pity the Jews trying to get through life with only half a Bible. That's like trying to get from here to San Francisco with a road map that stops at Dubuque, Iowa. Kurt Vonnegut More Quotes by Kurt Vonnegut More Quotes From Kurt Vonnegut The German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, who had syphilis, said that only a person of deep faith could afford the luxury of religious skepticism. Humanists, by and large educated, comfortably middle-class persons with rewarding lives like mine, find rapture enough in secular knowledge and hope. Most people can't. Kurt Vonnegut luxury religious class Anyway -- because we are readers, we don't have to wait for some communications executive to decide what we should think about next -- and how we should think about it. We can fill our heads with anything from aardvarks to zucchinis -- at any time of night or day. Kurt Vonnegut communication philosophy night Take it from somebody who has been around for a million years: When you get right down to it, food is practically the whole story every time. Kurt Vonnegut whole stories years The reason we write fiction is because it's so much easier to exist spending part of each day in an imaginary world. Kurt Vonnegut each-day writing fiction I love you, Eliza,” I said. She thought about it. “No,” she said at last, “I don’t like it.” “Why not?” I said. “It’s as though you were pointing a gun at my head,” she said. “It’s just a way of getting somebody to say something they probably don’t mean. What else can I say, or anybody say, but, ‘I love you, too’? Kurt Vonnegut gun love-you mean Take life seriously but none of the people in it. Kurt Vonnegut people What can any one person do?' he said. 'Each person does a little something,' I said, 'and there you are. Kurt Vonnegut doe said littles Most things in this world don´t work, aspirin do. Kurt Vonnegut aspirin this-world world Humor is a way of holding off how awful life can be, to protect yourself. Kurt Vonnegut awful protect way I think that scientific persons of the future will scoff at scientific persons of the present. They will scoff because scientific persons of the present thought so many important things were superstitious. Kurt Vonnegut important persons thinking Vietnam was a country where America was trying to make people stop being communists by dropping things on them from airplanes. Kurt Vonnegut airplane country america I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone. I get drunk, and I drive my wife away with a breath like mustard gas and roses. And then, speaking gravely and elegantly into the telephone, I ask the telephone operators to connect me with this friend or that one, from whom I have not heard in years. Kurt Vonnegut rose night years The highest possible form of treason is to say that Americans aren’t loved wherever they go, whatever they do. Kurt Vonnegut cradle treason form I thought scientists were going to find out exactly how everything worked, and then make it work better. Kurt Vonnegut hiroshima scientist I was taught in the sixth grade that we had a standing army of just over a hundred thousand men and that the generals had nothing to say about what was done in Washington. I was taught to be proud of that and to pity Europe for having more than a million men under arms and spending all their money on airplanes and tanks. I simply never unlearned junior civics. I still believe in it. I got a very good grade. Kurt Vonnegut airplane army believe What you can become is the miracle you were born to be through the work that you do. Kurt Vonnegut born miracle I'm mad about being old and I'm mad about being American. Apart from that, OK. Kurt Vonnegut being-old mad It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can't get out of, but I think this is very usual in life. Kurt Vonnegut storytelling usual thinking It is almost always a mistake to mention Abraham Lincoln. He always steals the show. Kurt Vonnegut abraham stealing mistake It is never a mistake to say good-bye. Kurt Vonnegut bokonon mistake bye
