# 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:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**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, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/21 "2006-06-12T12:48:24Z")
Boy, if I were ever tempted to have a sig line, that’ll be it. ---
**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 12, 2006, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/22 "2006-06-12T12:49:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Thar’s only two possibilities: Thar is life out there in the universe which is smarter than we are, or we’re the most intelligent life in the universe. Either way, it’s a mighty sobering thought. ~~ Walt Kelly ---
**Author:** ![Frosted\_Glass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frosted_glass/32/3926_2.png) [@Frosted\_Glass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frosted_Glass)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/23 "2006-06-12T13:09:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best. > Wherever you go, you will top all the rest. > Except when you don’t > Because, sometimes, you won’t. ~Dr. Suess from **Oh, the Places You’ll Go!** ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/24 "2006-06-12T13:29:34Z")
Argue for your limitations and sure enough they’re yours! Richard Bach. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/25 "2006-06-12T14:07:26Z")
My favorite quote (which should appear as a banner at the top of Great Debates) is: “We can disagree without being disagreeable.” I had thought it was Ben Franklin who said that, but Google confounds that notion. Moreover, the quote (or something similar) seems to have multiple attributions, so I guess I have no idea who said it first. ---
**Author:** ![Alma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alma)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/26 "2006-06-12T14:41:06Z")
“Who ain’t a slave?” -Herman Melville, _Moby Dick_ ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/27 "2006-06-12T14:59:02Z")
“Crowds. Sunday they’re laying palm leaves in front of Jesus and yelling Hosanna and by the end of the week they’re nailing him to a cross.” - My wife. ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/28 "2006-06-12T16:31:52Z")
I got two. First is actually one of Mr. Vonnegut’s. Now, I’m not a fan of Vonnegut’s novels, but I love his short stories, all of which were written for magazines back in the heyday of the short story and are much more accessible to a not-that-bright person such as myself. Several of these stories were about the optimistic band teacher, George M. Helmholtz. This quote belongs to Mr. Helmholtz, and regards how to make the world a more beautiful place: “Love yourself, and make your instrument sing about it.” Second, from _Spangle_ by Dan Jennings. I love this quote, but I can’t usually use it verbatim, in polite company, for reasons that will be clear once you read it. This ‘voice’ is that of a black cook, recently freed from slavery after the Civil War and traveling with a down-at-the-heels circus. The owner of the circus is planning to use her as their fat lady and change her name to Madame Alp, on stage. He checks with her to be sure this name change won’t offend her and she replies, “I bin called darlin’ honey and I bin called niggah hussy. But I be’s always me, and I knows who I am.” I love this quote, which says all that needs to be said, in my opinion, about self-esteem and self-awareness… but, as I said, it obviously isn’t a quote I can spout freely. So I paraphrase when I use it, to “I’ve been called honey, and I’ve been called hussy, but I’m always me and I know who I am.” However I phrase it, though, it belongs to that cook, who didn’t let a lifetime of slavery make her forget who she was. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/29 "2006-06-12T18:01:13Z")
Mine is from the greatest of all authors, _Anonymous_ (at least as far as I can Google): “Adversity introduces a man to himself.” I carried a folded 3x5 card with this on it around in my wallet during a particularly tough time in my life. ---
**Author:** ![skittles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@skittles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skittles)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/30 "2006-06-12T18:27:18Z")
This is one that gets me through many work days… “Time, which changes people, does not alter the image we have retained of them.” - Marcel Proust ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/31 "2006-06-12T18:31:16Z")
I walked a mile with pleasure, she chattered all the way, But left me none the wiser, for all she had to say I walked a mile with sorrow, and never a word said she, But oh; the things I learned from her, when sorrow walked with me. I don’t know who said it, but it is so true. Satch ---
**Author:** ![Keweenaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Keweenaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keweenaw)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/32 "2006-06-12T18:37:58Z")
> [@K364](#): > > 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?"_ I need to expand this a bit, since it’s how I remember it Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder ‘why, why, why?’ Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand. ---
**Author:** ![Denis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5e9695/32.png) [@Denis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Denis)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/33 "2006-06-12T21:57:32Z")
“Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile.”-KV, _Mother Night_ ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/34 "2006-06-13T00:13:21Z")
Emerson’s quote, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” is a favorite of mine, having worked so much of my life dealing with bureaucrats, politicians and other little minds. Unfortunately, most people misquote it by leaving our the word “foolish.” ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/35 "2006-06-13T02:46:46Z")
I like my quotes cynical. These two are my favorites, and though they are depressing, they seem quite true to me. The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry. ~Ernest Hemingway Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. ~H.L. Mencken ---
**Author:** ![kurahee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f19dbf/32.png) [@kurahee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kurahee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/36 "2006-06-13T03:44:18Z")
I have a bunch (I love good quotes), but these are ones I’ve used in everyday speech. The Vanilla Sky quote, sadly, is so true it’s frightening. But it explains most everything in life. Whenever I find myself asking "Why is this happening? the answer is always money. The Kennedy quote is hanging in my office. “A good compromise makes everybody angry.” - Calvin (Calvin & Hobbes) “What is the answer to 99 out of 100 questions? Money.” - Tom Cruise, Vanilla Sky “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” - A. Lincoln. “For in the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children’s futures, and we are all mortal.” - J. F. Kennedy. ---
**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 13, 2006, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/37 "2006-06-13T11:02:54Z")
For every complex, human problem there is a simple solution. And it is always wrong. --H.L. Mencken ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319/38 "2006-06-13T11:58:37Z")
“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?” **Vonnegut** “If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you’re a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.” **Vonnegut** I just love that man. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurt-vonnegut-once-wrote-quotes-youve-taken-to-heart/360319.md?page=1)