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Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage

Book by Kurt Vonnegut · 32 quotes · Writing, Palm Sunday, People

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Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage Quotes

“How on earth can religious people believe in so much arbitrary, clearly invented balderdash?....The acceptance of a creed, any creed, entitles the acceptor to membership in the sort of artificial extended family we call a congregation. It is a way to fight loneliness. Any time I see a person fleeing from reason and into religion, I think to myself, There goes a person who simply cannot stand being so goddamned lonely anymore.”

PeopleThinkingWayBelievePersonsReasonEarthReligionFightingReligiousLonelinessAcceptanceLonelyArtificialCreedsArbitraryCongregationMembershipFleeingExtended Family
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“This world is not a vale of sorrows if you will recognize discriminatingly what is truly excellent in it; and if you will avail yourself of it for mutual happiness and well-being. Therefore, let us explain as often as possible, and particularly at the departure of life, that we base our faith on firm foundations, on Truth for putting into action our ideas which do not depend on fables and ideas which Science has long ago proven to be false.”

IfsWorldWellsLongIdeasActionThis WorldDependsSorrowFoundationWell BeingExcellentFirmMutualLong AgoProvenDepartureFablesFirm Foundation
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“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.”

PeopleShouldTodayYoungPurposeCommunityLonelinessYouthTerribleDiseaseLonelyThought ProvokingDaringStableBeing AloneLive For TodayFeeling LonelyBeing LonelyLonely PeopleI Am LonelyLonely FeelingLonely HeartLoneliness In LifePalm SundaySpiritual CommunityYouth Of Today
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“Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.”

WritingPersonsNovelCriticismHotCriticsRageRejectionEditorsArmorLoathingFiction WritingWriters And WritingFiction WritersWriting By WritersLiterary CriticismReviewersFudgeSundaesPalm SundayIce Cream Sundae
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“Comedians and jazz musicians have been more comforting and enlightening to me than preachers or politicians or philosophers or poets or painters or novelists of my time. Historians in the future, in my opinion, will congratulate us on very little other than our clowning and our jazz.”

LittlesHas BeensOpinionPoetPoliticianMusicianJazzPhilosopherPainterComedianNovelistsMy TimeHistorianPreacherComfortingEnlighteningJazz MusicianClowning
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“When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away - even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.”

IfsWantWritingStillsCharacterUsedWaterTeachCreativeModernStudentsDrinkGlassesCreative WritingWant SomethingModern LifeParalyzedMeaninglessnessDrink Water
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“Ink and paper are as cheap as sand or water, almost. No board of directors has to convene in order to decide whether we can afford to write down this or that. I myself once staged the end of the world on two pieces of paper- at a cost of ...less than a penny, including wear and tear on my typewriter ribbon and the seat of my pants. 'Think of that.”

ThinkingWorldWritingTwoEndsOrderWaterPiecesTearsCostDirectorsPaperIncludingBoardsSeatsSandPantsInkEnd Of The WorldPenniesTypewritersRibbonsBoard Of DirectorsInk And Paper
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“Be warned: If you allow yourself to see dignity in someone, you have doomed yourself to wanting to understand and help whoever it is. "If you see dignity in anything, in fact--it doesn't have to be human--you will still want to understand it and help it. Many people are now seeing dignity in the lower animals and the plant world and waterfalls and deserts--and even in the entire planet and its atmosphere. And now they are helpless not to want to understand and help those things. "Poor souls!”

UnderstandingEmpathyDignity
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“One German-American friend of mine, an architectural historian my own age, can be counted on to excoriate Woodrow Wilson after he has had several strong drinks. He goes on to say that it was Wilson who persuaded this country that it was patriotic to be stupid, to be proud of knowing only one language, of believing that all other cultures were inferior and ridiculous, offensive to God and common sense alike, that artists and teachers and studious persons in general were ninnies when it came to dealing with problems in life that really mattered, and on and on. This friend says that it was a particular misfortune for this country that the German-Americans had achieved such eminence in the arts and education when it was their turn to be scorned from on high. To hate all they did and stood for at that time, which included gymnastics, by the way, was to lobotomize not only the German-Americans but our culture. "That left American football," says my German-American friend, and someone is elected to drive him home.”

KnowledgeIgnoranceStupidityPatriotismNationalityEthnicityWoodrow Wilson
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“The women's liberation movement of today in America, in its most oceanic sense, is a wish by women to be liked for something other than their reproductive abilities, especially since the planet is harrowingly overpopulated. And the rejection of the Equal Rights Amendment by male state legislators is this clear statement by men, in my opinion: "We're sorry, girls, but your reproductive abilities are about all we can really like you for." The truth.”

WomenGenderWomen S RightsWomen S LiberationEraEqual Rights AmendmentWomen S Lib
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“Be aware of this truth that the people on this earth could be joyous, if only they would live rationally and if they would contribute mutually to each others' welfare. This world is not a vale of sorrows if you will recognize discriminatingly what is truly excellent in it; and if you will avail yourself of it for mutual happiness and well-being. Therefore, let us explain as often as possible, and particularly at the departure of life, that we base our faith on firm foundations, on Truth for putting into action our ideas which do not depend on fables and ideas which Science has long ago proven to be false.”

ScienceAtheistFuneralSkepticFreethinkerClemens Vonnegut
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