Kurt Vonnegut

"All it took was one great and terrible truth that was believed by thousands of people to remake civilization."

"I want to support the creation of harmony and beauty in this world."

"The most important thing in this world is that people are alive to appreciate it."

"I have not changed my mind about religion, but I have changed it about people."

"Human beings are not all like human beings, not all like anything else either."

"We are chemically, biologically, physically no different from wild beasts that roam the earth."

"Do not let the past be a drag on the future."

"The most destructive thing one can do is to tell yourself a lie and believe it."

"I have a wife and daughters, so I do care about the future of the species, as a sentimental thing."

"Learning how to recognize what another person is probably thinking from their body language would help tremendously."

"I once read a story about a perfectly contented man living in the Midwest."

"Do what you were meant to do and do it well."

"Make the best of life while it lasts, which it does not."

"And now I want to say something that I have never said before, which is: I will be with you always."

"Human nature demands that we create meaning somehow, no matter how small."

"Who else could there be?"

"The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal."

"We are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different."

"Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow."

"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.'"

"The only way your dreams become reality is through process and time."

"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."

"We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."

"Enjoy it while you can, and while you're here notice the beautiful things."

"And I want to thank you for your attention to the matter of my coming to address you today."

"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."

"The most important thing I have to tell you today is that human beings are glorious things."

"There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization."

"Everything is nothing, with a twist."

"Reading is the most nourishing of all the pleasures; it is the most lasting, the most purely peaceful."