Slaughter House Five Quotes

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  Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Book, Slaughterhouse Five, Billy Pilgrim

  Slaughterhouse-Five ch. 2 (1969)

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• There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Book, Slaughterhouse Five, Causes

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Past, Slaughterhouse Five, Chaos

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.8, Infobase Publishing

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• I think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren't going to want to go on living.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Lying, Thinking, People

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.135, Infobase Publishing

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• He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Slaughterhouse Five, Next, Slaughterhouse 5

  Kurt Vonnegut (1969). “Slaughterhouse-five: or, The children's crusade, a duty-dance with death”

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• It is just an illusion here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone, it is gone forever.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Forever, Slaughterhouse Five, Gone

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.9, Infobase Publishing

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• When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in the particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is "So it goes.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Thinking, People, Slaughterhouse Five

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• If I hadn’t spent so much time studying Earthlings," said the Tralfamadorian, "I wouldn’t have any idea what was meant by 'free will.' I've visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I have studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Ideas, Slaughterhouse Five, Earth

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• There is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Intelligent, Slaughterhouse Five, Slaughterhouse 5

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.3, Infobase Publishing

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• Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Past, Slaughterhouse Five, Billy Pilgrim

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.14, Infobase Publishing

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• And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like "Poo-tee-weet?

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Bird, Slaughterhouse Five, Slaughterhouse 5

  Kurt Vonnegut (2002). “Slaughterhouse-Five”, Spark Notes

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• One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  War, Character, People

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• The most important thing I learned [...] was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist.

  Gavin Extence

  Silly, Past, People

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• Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Gratitude, Slaughterhouse Five, Awful

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.131, Infobase Publishing

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• The nicest veterans in Schenectady, I thought, the kindest and funniest ones, the ones who hated war the most, were the ones who'd really fought.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  War, Slaughterhouse Five, Veteran

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.156, Infobase Publishing

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• That's one thing Earthlings might learn to do, if they tried hard enough: Ignore the awful times and concentrate on the good ones.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Slaughterhouse Five, Might, Awful

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.131, Infobase Publishing

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• I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Slaughterhouse Five, Mountain, Doe

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.141, Infobase Publishing

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• Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected. So it goes.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Slaughterhouse Five, Slaughterhouse 5, Wells

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Healing, Slaughterhouse Five, Slaughterhouse 5

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like "Poo-tee-weet?

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Intelligent, Bird, Slaughterhouse Five

  Kurt Vonnegut (2002). “Slaughterhouse-Five”, Spark Notes

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• Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Tattoo, Beautiful, Hurt

  Kurt Vonnegut (2011). “Kurt Vonnegut: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations”, p.133, Melville House

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

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Life, Nice, Numbness

  Kurt Vonnegut (1988). “Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut”, p.140, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• All this happened, more or less.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Slaughterhouse Five, Chaos, Slaughterhouse 5

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.112, Infobase Publishing

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• Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Life Changing, Slaughterhouse Five, Trying

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.19, Infobase Publishing

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

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Wisdom, Philosophy, Slaughterhouse Five

  FaceBook post by Kurt Vonnegut from Jul 04, 2016

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