Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

When we think we lead, we are most led.

The things they don't tell you in schools these days, geez. Have a look at your owners. The politicians are put there to give you the idea you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice; you have owners. They own you. They own everything.

I really don't pay too much attention; I don't go out of my way to read any interviews.

Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedom.

I have discovered that a famed familiarity in great ones is a note of certain usurpation on the less; for great and popular men feign themselves to be servants to others to make those slaves to them.

Power is all. Another falsification; I do not tell how I gain or maintain it. I only record the ginger stroll through the vaguely fetid garden of its rewards.

If the fools do not control the world, it isn't because they are not in the majority.

History is not happenstance: it is conspiratorial. Carefully planned and executed by people in power.

We've got to fool the fools, and plan the plans. We must rule the rules, got to stand the stands.

He's getting dumped. And he doesn't even know it yet. He's probably eating a cheeseburger or flossing or picking up his dry cleaning, and he has no idea. No inkling.

O that men's ears should be To counsel deaf but not to flattery!

Remember that anybody who is clever enough to set you free is clever enough to enslave you.

At one time kings were anointed by Deity, so the problem was to see to it that Deity chose the right candidate. In this age the myth is "the will of the people" ... but the problem changes only superficially.

Because it is so unbelievable, the Truth often escapes being known.

A resolution that is communicated is no longer within thy power; thy attentions become now the plaything of chance; he who would have his commands certainly carried out must take man by surprise.

A flatterer can risk everything with great personages.

Uninformed people can be easily manipulated.

When we successfully deceive others, they are not aware of it; the same is true with self-deception.

So in everything: power lies with those who control finance, not with those who know the matter upon which the money is to be spent. Thus, the holders of power are, in general, ignorant and malevolent, and the less they exercise their power the better.

Like the actor, authority has faith in its false whiskers. But its deepest faith is in the human illusion. People will hang on to illusion as eagerly as life itself.

Everyone in a position of authority is hysterical, and everyone else is pretending to be asleep.

Intellectuals may like to think of themselves as people who "speak truth to power" but too often they are people who speak lies to gain power.

A speech is something you say so as to distract attention from what you do not say.

Who owns a man, Durnik?” the blond young man asked sadly. “The one who rules him, or the one who pays him?