# Kurt Vonnegut's best quotes

'So it goes', 'God damn it, you've got to be kind' and 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is': Kurt Vonnegut's most loved lines, from Slaughterhouse-Five, Mother Night and his essays, plus the famous sunscreen speech he never gave.

- 177 votes · 12 items
- Dec 24, 2020 · dealhunter_queenstown
- https://even.best/en/l/4658/kurt-vonnegut-s-best-quotes

## Top 12

1. **So it goes.** (21 · ▲22 ▼1) — Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), repeated after every death in the novel.
2. **If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.** (20 · ▲20 ▼0) — His uncle Alex's saying, which he urged readers to repeat when happy: 'Knowing What's Nice', 2003.
3. **God damn it, you've got to be kind.** (17 · ▲19 ▼2) — God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965).
4. **We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.** (14 · ▲15 ▼1) — Mother Night (1962), introduction added in 1966.
5. **Make love when you can. It's good for you.** (13 · ▲15 ▼2) — Mother Night (1962).
6. **Ideas or the lack of them can cause disease.** (12 · ▲12 ▼0) — Breakfast of Champions (1973).
7. **Everything of mine which has been filmed so far has been one character short, and that character is me.** (11 · ▲11 ▼0) — Between Time and Timbuktu (1972), preface.
8. **I simply never unlearned junior civics.** (8 · ▲10 ▼2) — On why he kept believing in American ideals.
9. **Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.** (5 · ▲9 ▼4) — Player Piano (1952).
10. **Nothing in this book is true.** (5 · ▲8 ▼3) — Cat's Cradle (1963), epigraph.
11. **Wear sunscreen.** (5 · ▲7 ▼2) — Misattributed: the 'commencement speech' credited to him in 1997 was really a newspaper column by Mary Schmich.
12. **Find a subject you care about.** (4 · ▲8 ▼4) — 'How to Write with Style', 1980.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.