And I've gone crazy, couldn't you tell? Threw stones at the stars, and the whole sky fell.
Well, this week I've gone crazy over Kurt Vonnegut quotes. Here are some of my favorites:
The truth is, we know so little about life, we don't really know what the good news is and what the bad news is.
People say there are no atheists in foxholes. A lot of people think this
is a good argument against atheism. Personally, I think it's a much
better argument against foxholes.
Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the
winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've
got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of,
babies- damn it, you've got to be kind.
If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to
be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The
arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making
life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a
way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower.
Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy
poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous
reward. You will have created something.
And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or
murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what
is.'
And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those
people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her
for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of
salt. So it goes.
Many people need desperately to receive this message: 'I feel and think
much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although
most people do not care about them. You are not alone.'
In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in his cosmic loneliness.
And
God said, "Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see
what We have done." And God created every living creature that now
moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close
to mud as man sat, looked around, and spoke. "What is the purpose of all
this?" he asked politely.
"Everything must have a purpose?" asked God.
"Certainly," said man.
"Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this," said God.
And He went away.
Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.
And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.
Love is where you find it. I think it is foolish to go around looking
for it, and I think it can be poisonous. I wish people who are
conventionally supposed to love each other would say to each other, when
they fight, 'Please-a little less love, and a little more common
decency.'
I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people
appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know
of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did.'
What should young people do with their lives today? Many things,
obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in
which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.
Wake up, you idiots! Whatever made you think that money was so valuable?
All right - I'll tell you what you did for me: you went for happy, silly, beautiful walks with me.
That's one thing Earthlings might learn to do, if they tried hard
enough: Ignore the awful times and concentrate on the good ones.
Live by the harmless untruths that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.
No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our
corporations, our media, and our religious & charitable institutions
may become, the music will still be wonderful.
The letter said that they were two feet high, and green., and shaped
like plumber's friends. Their suction cups were on the ground, and their
shafts, which were extremely flexible, usually pointed to the sky. At
the top of each shaft was a little hand with a green eye in its palm.
The creatures were friendly, and they could see in four dimensions. They
pitied Earthlings for being able to see only three. They had many
wonderful things to teach Earthlings, especially about time. Billy
promised to tell what some of those wonderful things were in his next
letter.
Billy was working on his second letter when the first letter was published. The second letter started out like this:
The
most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore 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. The
Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we
can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see
how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that
interests them. It is just an illusion we have 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.
When a Tralfamadorian sees a
corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in a bad condition in
that 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."
There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph
of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as
angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.
And in closing,
Be patient, Ophelia.
Love,
Hamlet
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