"It is a gruesome Disneyland. Nobody is cute there."

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More by Kurt Vonnegut

“I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, we … dehumanize our own soldiers, not because of their religion or race, but because of their low social class. Send 'em anywhere. Make 'em do anything. Piece of cake.”

“Well, I just want to say that George W. Bush is the syphilis president.”

“I do feel that evolution is being controlled by some sort of divine engineer. I can't help thinking that. And this engineer knows exactly what he or she is doing and why, and where evolution is headed. That’s why we’ve got giraffes and hippopotami and the clap.”

“The new heroism — put a village idiot into a pressure cooker, seal it up tight, and shoot him at the moon.”

“Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything else about us is dead machinery.”

Resonant Thoughts

"It is striking that the idea of a moral being without ordinary human limitations as the source of the moral demand survived in 20th century moral philosophy even in theories that do not posit the exis…"

— John E. Hare

Ethics1949

#philosophy

"I remember as a child holding these long notes, so there’s something that’s already there. But I do think it’s a constant question of knowing and taking care of yourself. It doesn’t necessarily mean y…"

— Lila Downs

Music1968

#knowledge

"I've actually felt slightly uncomfortable at TED for the last two days, because there's a lot of vision going on, right? And I am not a visionary. I do not have a five-year plan. I'm an engineer. And …"

— Linus Torvalds

Technology1969

#time

"The people were divided into the persecuted and those who persecuted them. That wild beast, which lives in man and does not dare to show itself until the barriers of law and custom have been removed, …"

— Ivo Andrić

Literature1892–1975

#life