# Kurt Vonnegut once wrote...(quotes you've taken to heart) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 11, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319 "2006-06-11T17:20:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/1 "2006-06-11T17:20:41Z")
…that if you want to be able to tell a good painting from a bad one, just look at ten thousand paintings, and you’ll know. Possibly more than any other quote (from Bluebeard, btw, a great novel), that one changed my life. I decided to watch “ten thousand” films (though I’m not keeping more than general [around 2000, I think] track, because I hope to see many more than that in my lifetime; you get the idea). I decided that to grasp the art I would just submerge myself in it, and I’ve never looked back. (I enjoy filmic scholarship, but ultimately, deconstruction is best done in context. Which is what Vonnegut said in Bluebeard, just way better than I could). There’ve been other (“Do unto others…”) soundbyte type quotes from writers I admire that I took to heart as watchwords, but that Vonnegut one I can say actually made a practical, outward difference in my life. So that’s the kind I’m after from you all, though I’m also happy just to hear quotes people have found personally significant. Another of mine: Douglas Adams in Last Chance to See: “It would be easy to think, after the extinction of the dodo, that we are now sadder and wiser, but there is a lot of evidence to suggest that we are merely sadder and better informed.” ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/2 "2006-06-11T18:10:07Z")
“I don’t have to experience starvation to want to alleviate it wherever possible.” – Robert Parker “By and By it will be found that all Literature has become one boundless self-devouring Review…” – Thomas Carlyle (1831) “Little girls are only cute and adorable to adults. To each other they are not cute. They are life-sized.” – Margaret Atwood ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/3 "2006-06-11T18:16:13Z")
“Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in this matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agree with them. And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order to maintain that what they said was true.” --Richard Feynman in **The Meaning of It All** ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/4 "2006-06-11T18:18:26Z")
"Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. "–Richard Feynman, same place. ---
**Author:** ![M.Meursault](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@M.Meursault](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/M.Meursault)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/5 "2006-06-11T18:18:29Z")
There are a couple that I have taken to heart. “You are who you pretend to be; so be careful who you pretend to be.” --Kurt Vonnegut. “A leader should err on the side of lenience and not punishment.” Muhammed. (Anytime I think about penal policies and politics, I remember this. Actually, this summer I’m a legal intern writing policies for a work release facility and I’ve repeated this quote several times to my co-workers). I’ve begun to question my instincts following a quote from Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity:” I’ve been listening to my guts for years and I think my guts have shit for brains." That really spoke to me because I really identified with the main character who spoke that line. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/6 "2006-06-11T18:29:25Z")
History is bunk. - Henry Ford followed closely by, and inextricably linked to: Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. - George Santayana ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/7 "2006-06-11T18:30:16Z")
> [@M. Meursault](#): > > I’ve begun to question my instincts following a quote from Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity:” I’ve been listening to my guts for years and I think my guts have shit for brains." > That really spoke to me because I really identified with the main character who spoke that line. I love all the contribution so far, but I think this is my favorite, probably just because (as, I think, Dr. Feynman would agree) I’m against this idea of instinct as being a good guide. Not relying on instinct is what makes us human beings. Rationality is so key, and instinct is so often irrational ( for example, we see patterns where there are none, because we’re pattern-making creatures…false hits confuse us and create superstition). I haven’t read that book but I’m going to order a copy now, thanks, M. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/8 "2006-06-11T18:42:56Z")
> [@](#): > > “Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” > ~~ **Robert E. Howard** , The Tower of the Elephant (1933) And, because you all know I’m a fan of the Doctor of Journalism– > [@](#): > > “I felt like a monster reincarnation of Horatio Alger…a Man on the Move, and just sick enough to be totally confident.” > > “Today’s pig is tomorrow’s bacon.” > > ~~ **Dr. Hunter S. Thompson** ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/9 "2006-06-11T18:43:00Z")
**M. Mersault** , how nice you’ve come around to understanding it’s better to learn from Arabs than to shoot them. 😛 One of my favorite quotes to live by was sung by Rita Marley: _The road of life is rocky and you may stumble too But while you point your finger someone else is judging you._ ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/10 "2006-06-11T19:58:10Z")
Freshman physics is invariably the most satisfying course offered by any American university. - KVjr. … we’ll be saying a big hello to all intelligent life forms everywhere … and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys. DA (The latter is the best explanation of scientific research I have ever seen.) ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/11 "2006-06-11T21:04:01Z")
Do we not destroy our enemy by making him our friend? --Abraham Lincoln ---
**Author:** ![M.Meursault](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@M.Meursault](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/M.Meursault)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/12 "2006-06-11T22:30:10Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > **M. Mersault** , how nice you’ve come around to understanding it’s better to learn from Arabs than to shoot them. 😛 Hey, if they didn’t want us to shoot them, they wouldn’t have built a civilization on top of our oil. 😃 I actually think that the Qu’ran is infinitely more quotable than the Bible. The Qu’ran just has a natural poetry to it that the Bible doesn’t (probably due to the endless translations required for me to read it). ---
**Author:** ![633squadron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/ee59a6/32.png) [@633squadron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/633squadron)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/13 "2006-06-11T23:36:32Z")
> [@Ensign Edison](#): > > Vonnegut one I can say actually made a practical, outward difference in my life. So that’s the kind I’m after from you all, though I’m also happy just to hear quotes people have found personally significant. “Unemployment results when large numbers of people are out of work” Calvin Coolidge “All’s well that ends.” Walt Kelly (Pogo) “Minds were made to be blown” Mr. Natural (R. Crumb) “Don’t touch it, it’s the history eraser button you fool!” Ren (J. Krisfaluci) “Barnicke? Barnicke! He owes me money!” John Winger (Bill Murray) ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/14 "2006-06-12T01:08:58Z")
I’ve read so much Vonnegut I forget which book this was in, but I remember a quote that went something like “Just because people _can_ reproduce, it doesn’t mean they _should_.” ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/15 "2006-06-12T02:30:36Z")
A profound one from Vonnegut (Cat’s Cradle) on the sad lot of Humanity: _Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, man gotta sit and wonder why? why? why?"_ ---
**Author:** ![Xan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ac8455/32.png) [@Xan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/16 "2006-06-12T03:19:46Z")
**From Angel episode "Epiphany"** > [@](#): > > If there’s no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters… then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that’s all there is. What we do. Now. Today…All I want to do is help. I wanna help because people shouldn’t suffer as they do. Because, if there isn’t any bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world. ---
**Author:** ![ambushed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@ambushed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ambushed)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/17 "2006-06-12T04:20:47Z")
[slight hijack]There are repeated references to “potato love” (not love of potatos, but rather to love _like_ a potato) in Saul Bellow’s wonderful [Herzog](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142437298), first published in 1964. Didn’t Vonnegut also use that phrase in at least one of his books? It seems to me he did, but I can’t recall for certain. Does anyone know? [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Leechboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc348/32.png) [@Leechboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leechboy)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/18 "2006-06-12T12:23:21Z")
“Sacred Cows make the best hamburgers” - Mark Twain ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/19 "2006-06-12T12:36:23Z")
On death and dying “…-- the aimless days and the uncertain nights and the impotently putting up with the physical deterioration and the terminal sadness and the waiting and waiting for nothing. This is how it works out, he thought, this is what you could not know.” and “he went under feeling far from felled, anyting but doomed, eager yet again to be fulfilled, but nonetheless, he never woke up. Cardiac arrest. He was no more, freed from being, entering into nowhere without even knowing it. Just as he’d feard from the start.” – Philip Roth, from _Everyman_ Jesus, but this dude can write. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/20 "2006-06-12T12:47:01Z")
This is a picture of an asshole. \* [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319.md?page=2)