Slaughterhouse Five Quotes - Page 2

• 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 5, Slaughter House Five

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

  37 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Mountain, Doe, Warning

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

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Next, Slaughterhouse 5, States

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

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  7 Copy quote

• Listen:
  Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Book, Billy Pilgrim, Slaughterhouse 5

  Slaughterhouse-Five ch. 2 (1969)

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee. I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Son, Thinking, People

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Unusual travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Travel, Climbing, Dancing

  "Cat's Cradle". Book by Kurt Vonnegut, 1963.

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. 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”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue, the monograph went on. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact how hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Believe, Facts, Blame

  "Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death". Book by Kurt Vonnegut (Chapter 5, p. 129), 1969.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Hate, America, People

  KURT VONNEGUT, JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE”

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Night, Alcohol, Telephones

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.129, Infobase Publishing

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Baby, Dull, Slaughterhouse 5

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• You know — we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. "'My God, my God — ' I said to myself, 'It's the Children's Crusade.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Baby, Children, War

  Slaughterhouse-Five ch. 5 (1969)

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• If I am going to spend eternity visiting this moment and that, I'm grateful that so many of those moments are nice.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Nice, Grateful, Moments

  KURT VONNEGUT, JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• We went to the New York World's Fair, saw what the past had been like, according to the Ford Motor Car Company and Walt Disney, saw what the future would be like, according to General Motors. And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  New York, Past, Car

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Past, Chaos, Moments

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

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Bird, Slaughterhouse 5, Tees

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

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves... It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Wise, Hate, Men

  "Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death". Book by Kurt Vonnegut, 1969.

  82 Copy quote

  Show source

• All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  War, Literature, Slaughterhouse 5

  Kurt Vonnegut (1969). “Slaughterhouse-five, Or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-dance with Death”, Random House LLC

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• There isn’t any particular relationship between the messages, except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep. 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

  Love, Beautiful, Book

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It was very exciting for her, taking his dignity away in the name of love.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Names, Dignity, Slaughterhouse 5

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• If what Billy Pilgrim learned from the Tralfamadorians is true, that we will all live forever, no matter how dead we may sometimes seem to be, I am not overjoyed. Still--if I am going to spend eternity visiting this moment and that, I'm grateful that so many of those moments are nice.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Nice, Grateful, Forever

  Kurt Vonnegut (1969). “Slaughterhouse-five, Or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-dance with Death”, Random House LLC

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Population Reference Bureau predicts that the world's total population will double to 7,000,000,000 before the year 2000. I suppose they will all want dignity, I said.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Years, Population, World

  KURT VONNEGUT, JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source