Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death is a science fiction infused anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut, first published in 1969. Profoundly inspirational Slaughterhouse Five quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
If you’re searching for most beautiful quotes from books that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of profound Watership Down quotes, amazing Ender’s Game Quotes and top Hobbit quotes.
Famous Slaughterhouse Five Quotes
I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee. I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that. Kurt Vonnegut
Nobody’s so damn well educated that you can’t learn ninety percent of what he knows in six weeks. The other ten percent is decoration. Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
You know we’ve had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. ‘My God, my God, I said to myself, ‘It’s the Children’s Crusade. Kurt Vonnegut
People took such awful chances with chemicals and their bodies because they wanted the quality of their lives to improve. They lived in ugly places where there were only ugly things to do. They didn’t own doodley squat, so they couldn’t improve their surroundings. So they did their best to make their insides beautiful instead. Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions
What he meant, of course, was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers. I believe that, too. Kurt Vonnegut
But his head no longer sheltered ideas of how things could be and should be on the planet, as opposed to how they really were. There was only one way for the Earth to be, he thought: the way it was. Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions
And even if wars didn’t keep coming like glaciers, there would still be plain old death. Kurt Vonnegut
The machines are to practically everybody what the white men were to the Indians. People are finding that, because of the way the machines are changing the world, more and more of their old values don’t apply any more. People have no choice but to become second-rate machines themselves, or wards of the machines. Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
It is so short and jumbled and jangled because there is nothing intelligent to say after a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead everything is supposed to be very quiet and it always is, except for the birds. Kurt Vonnegut
And the charming little cottage he’d taken as a symbol of the good life of a farmer was as irrelevant as a statue of Venus at the gate of a sewage-disposal plant. Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
That’s the attractive thing about war, absolutely everybody gets a little something. Rosewater
But you find out quick enough that old friends are old friends, and nothing more no wiser, no more help than anyone else. Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
The city was blacked out because bombers might come, so Billy didn’t get to see Dresden do one of the most cheerful things a city can do when the sun goes down, which is to wink its lights on one by one. Kurt Vonnegut
Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn’t well connected. Kurt Vonnegut
The poetry of four seasons is all wrong for this part of the planet, and this may explain why we are so depressed so much of the time. Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?
I thought, the kindest and funniest ones, the ones who hated war the most, were the ones who’d really fought. Kurt Vonnegut
So I hope that you will do the same for the rest of your lives. When things are going sweetly and peacefully, please pause a moment, and then say out loud, ‘If this isn’t nice, what is? Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?
Human beings in there took turns standing or lying down. The legs of those who stood were like fence posts driven into a warm, squirming, farting, sighing earth. The queer earth was a mosaic of sleepers who nestled like spoons. Kurt Vonnegut
But I have to say this in defense of humankind: No matter in what era in history, including the Garden of Eden, everybody just got there. And, except for the Garden of Eden, there were already all these crazy games going on, which could make you act crazy, even if you weren’t crazy to begin with. Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?
Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree. It had twenty dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer. So, it goes. Kurt Vonnegut
People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order, so they’ll have good voice boxes in case there’s ever anything really meaningful to say. Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
They didn’t think it had anything to do with the war. They were sure Billy was going to pieces because his father had thrown him into the deep end of the Y.M.C.A. swimming pool when he was a little boy, and had then taken him to the rim of the Grand Canyon. Kurt Vonnegut
No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat’s cradle is nothing but a bunch of X’s between somebody’s hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X’s No damn cat, and no damn cradle. Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
They were going back to the slaughterhouse for souvenirs of the war. Kurt Vonnegut
Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way. Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
No art is possible without a dance with death. Kurt Vonnegut
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. Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday
When everything was beautiful and nothing hurt Kurt Vonnegut
I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle. Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday
One might be led to suspect that there were all sorts of things going on in the Universe which he or she did not thoroughly understand. Kurt Vonnegut
That’s what it was to be young to be enthusiastic rather than envious about the good work other people could do. Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday
He did not think of himself as a writer for the simple reason that the world had never allowed him to think of himself in this way. Kurt Vonnegut
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. Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday
He had supposed for years that he had no secrets from himself. Here was proof that he had a great big secret somewhere inside, and he could not imagine what it was. Kurt Vonnegut
That is my principal objection to life, I think: It is too easy, when alive, to make perfectly horrible mistakes. Kurt Vonnegut, Deadeye Dick
All these years, I’ve been opening the window and making love to the world. Kurt Vonnegut
Egregious. Most people think that word means terrible or unheard of or unforgivable. It has a much more interesting story than that to tell. It means outside the herd. Imagine that thousands of people, outside the herd. Kurt Vonnegut, Deadeye Dick
What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at once. There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. When seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep. Kurt Vonnegut
My longer range schemes have to do with providing all Americans with artificial extended families of a thousand members or more. Only when we have overcome loneliness can we begin to share wealth and work more fairly. I honestly believe that we will have those families by and by, and I hope they will become international. Kurt Vonnegut, Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons
It is, in the imagination of combat’s fans, the divinely listless loveplay that follows the orgasm of victory. It is called ‘mopping up. Kurt Vonnegut
Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different! Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake
So, they were trying to re-invent themselves and their universe. Science fiction was a big help. Kurt Vonnegut
We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. My God, my God I said to myself. ‘It’s a Children’s Crusade. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
I was a writer on Cape Cod. Kurt Vonnegut
How’s the patient?’ asked Derby. Dead to the world. But not actually dead. No. How nice to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive. Kurt Vonnegut
On other days we have wars as horrible as any you’ve ever seen or read about. There isn’t anything we can do about them, so we simply don’t look at them. We ignore them. We spend eternity looking at pleasant moments like today at the zoo. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
The champagne was dead. So, it goes. Kurt Vonnegut
Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
When a person dies, he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist. Kurt Vonnegut
It is time for me to be dead for a little while and then live again. Kurt Vonnegut
The nicest veterans the kindest and funniest ones, the ones who hated war the most, were the ones who’d really fought. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five
There were lots of things to stop and see and then it was time to go, always time to go. Kurt Vonnegut
If I should ever die, again God forbid, I hope some of you will say, Kurt’s up in Heaven now.’ That’s my favorite joke. Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?
So, Billy experiences death for a while. It is simply violet light and a hum. There isn’t anybody else there. Not even Billy Pilgrim is there. Kurt Vonnegut
