Quotes

We Bokonists believe that humanity isorganized into teams, teams that do God’s Will without ever discovering what they are doing. Such a team is called a karass by Bokonon.

A seeming team that was meaningless in terms of the way God gets things done, a textbook example of what Bokonon calls a granfalloon . Other examples of granfalloons are the Communist party, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the General Electric Company, the International Order of Odd Fellows—and any nation, anytime, anywhere.

Every passing hour brings the Solar Systemforty-three thousand miles closer to GlobularCluster M13 in Hercules—and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress.

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

I want my attorney, my tailor, my valets, andeven my wife to believe in God, and I fancy that then I’ll be robbed and cuckolded less.

Le sens commun est fort rare .

Very learned women are to be found, in thesame manner as female warriors; but they areseldom or never inventors.

Toutes les histoires anciennes, comme le disait un de nos beaux esprits, ne sont que des fables convenues .

In this world we run the risk of having tochoose between being either the anvil or thehammer.

If this is the best of all possible worlds, whatare the others like?

Ce Corps qui s’appellait, & qui s’appelle encor, le saint Empire Romain, n’était en aucune maniére, ni saint, ni Romain, ni Empire .

In Westphalie, in Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh’scastle, there was a young boy upon whom nature had bestowed the gentlest manners. His soul shined through his face. He had fairly sound judgment, with the simplest spirit; this is why, I believe, they called him Candide.

That generous maxim, that it is much moreprudence to acquit two persons, though actually guilty, than to pass sentence of condemnationon one that is virtuous and innocent.

Il meglio, è l’inimico del bene .

E pluribus unus .

If there were only one religion in England, there would be danger of tyranny; if there weretwo, they would cut each other’s throats; butthere are thirty, and they live happily togetherin peace.

Fugit inreparabile tempus .

Death twitches my ear. “Live,” he says; “I am coming.”

[ Of Lucretius :] Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas .

Audacibus annue coeptis .

Manibus date lilia plenis .

Geniumque loci primamque deorum

Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes .

Arma virumque cano .

Frères humains, qui après nous vivez ,

J’aime la majesté des souffrances humaines .

[ Of Ronald Reagan :] A triumph of the embalmer’s art.

Dieu! que le son du cor est triste au fond des bois!

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent too. Words are used to disguise, notto illuminate, action: You liberate a city by destroying it. Words are used to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.

I’m all for bringing back the birch, but onlybetween consenting adults.

[ Of Richard Nixon :] He turned being a BigLoser into a perfect triumph by managing to lose the presidency in a way bigger and more original than anyone else had ever lost it before.

He will lie even when it is inconvenient, the sign of the true artist.

The sea is everything. It covers seven tenthsof the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides. The sea is only the embodiment of asupernatural and wonderful existence. It is nothing but love and emotion.

Science, my lad, has been built upon manyerrors; but they are errors which it was good to fall into, for they led to the truth.

Et, Ô ces voix d’enfants chantants dans la coupole!

Prends l’éloquence et tords-lui le cou .

De la musique avant toute chose .

Et tout le reste est littérature .

Except for God, the King’s our only lord and master.

Les sanglots longs

At what precise moment had Peru fucked itself up?

Harmony is pure love, for love is complete agreement.

Dieu créa l’homme, et ne le trouvant pas assez seul, il lui donne une compagne pour lui faire mieux sentir sa solitude .

L’avenir est comme le reste: il n’est plus ce qu’il était .

Un poème n’est jamais achevé—c’est toujours un accident qui le termine .

Nous autres, civilisations, nous savons maintenant que nous sommes mortelles .

To say that war is madness is like sayingthat sex is madness: true enough, from thestandpoint of a stateless eunuch, but merely a provocative epigram for those who must make their arrangements in the world as given.

Rabbit realized the world was not solid and benign, it was a shabby set of temporaryarrangements rigged up for the time being, all for the sake of the money. You just passedthrough, and they milked you for what youwere worth, mostly when you were young andgullible.