Original quotes

KURT VONNEGUT CAT'S CRADLE Penguin ed. 1981 (orig. 1963)

006.00
'Live by the foma* that makes you brave and
kind and healthy and happy.'
(The Books of Bokonon. I:5)

• Harmless untruths.
  

08.12
Oh, a sleeping drunkard
Up in Central Park,
and a lion-hunter
In the jungle dark,
And a Chinese dentist,
And a British Queen -
All fit together
In the same machine,
Nice, nice, very nice;
Nice, nice, very nice;
Nice, nice, very nice -
So many different people
In the same device.

039.05
IN THIS ROOM, DR FELIX HOENIKKER, NOBEL LAURE-
ATE IN PHYSICS, SPENT THE LAST TWENTY-EIGHT
YEARS OF HIS LIFE. 'WHERE HE WAS, THERE WAS THE
FRONTIER OF KNOWLEDGE.' THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS
ONE MAN IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
IS INCALCULABLE

043.03
Mother, Mother, how I pray
For you to gueard us every day.
- ANGELA HOENIKKER

043.07
You are not dead,
But only sleeping.
We should smile,
And stop our weeping.
- FRANKLIN HOENIKKER

053.02
I have a kitchen.
But it is not a complete kitchen.
I will not be truly gay
Until I have a
Dispose-all.

061.15
If you wish to study a granfalloon,
just remove the skin of a toy balloon.

067.29
'Papa' Monzano, he's so very bad,
But without bad 'Papa' I would be so sad;
Because without 'Papa's' badness,
Tell me, if you would,
How could wicked old Bokonon
Ever, ever look so good?

068.18
When I was young,
I was so gay and mean,
And I drank and chased the girls
Just like young St Augustine.
Saint Augustine,
He got to be a saint.
So, if I get to be one, also,
Please, Mama, don't you faint.

070.26
A fish picked up
By the angry sea,
I gasped on land,
and I became me.

070.36
Be like a baby,
The Bible say,
So I stay like a baby
To this very day.

071.14
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are,
Shining in the sky so bright,
Like a tea tray in the night,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.

071.22
Tsvent-kiul, tsvent-kiul, lett-pool store,
Ko jy tsvantoor bat voo yore.
Put-shinik on lo sheezo brath,
Kom oon teetron on lo nath,
Tsvent-kiul, tsvent-kiul, lett-pool store,
Ko jy tsvantoor bat voo yore.

080.18
Oh, a very sorry people, yes,
Did I find here.
Oh, they had no music,
And they had no beer.
And, oh, everywhere
Where they tried to perch
Belonged to Castle Sugar, Incorporated,
Or the Catholic church.

082.31 + 083.00
I wanted all things
To seem to make some sense,
So we all could be happy, yes,
Instead of tense.

And I made up lies
So that they all fit nice,
And I made this sad world
A par-a-dise.

089.13
Oh, ours is a land
Where the living is grand,
And the men are as fearless as sharks;
The women are pure,
And we always are sure
That our children will all toe their marks.
San, San-Lo-ren-zo!
What a rich, lucky island are we!
Our enemies quail,
For they know tehy will fail
Against people so reverent and free.

109.25
So I said good-bye to government,
And i gave my reason:
That a really good religion
Is a form of treason.

115.14
Tiger got to hunt,
Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why ?'
Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.

129.30 + 130.00
Sweet wraith,
Invisible mist of ...
I am -
My soul -
Wraith lovesick o'erlong,
O'erlong alone:
Wouldst another sweet soul meet?
Long have i
Advised thee ill
As to where two souls
Might tryst.
My soles, my soles!
My soul, my soul,
Go there,
Sweet soul;
Be kissed.
Mmmmmmm.

146.13
A lover's a liar,
To himself he lies.
The truthful are loveless,
Like oysters their eyes!

159.29
I was the first fruits of the battle of Missionary Ridge.
When I felt the bullet enter my heart
I wished I had stayed at home and gone to jail
For stealing the hogs of Curl Trenary,
Instead of running away and joining the army.
Rather a thousand times the county jail
Than to lie under this marble figure with wings,
And this granite pedestal
Bearing the words, 'Pro Patria'.
What do they mean anyway?

165.07
In any case, thre is bound to be much crying.
But the ooubliette alonewill let you think while dying.

165.30
Don't be a fool! Close this book at once! It is nothing but foma!

165.33 + 166.00
In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in
His cosmic loneliness.
And God said, 'Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the
mud can see what We have done.' And god created every living
creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could
speak. God leaned close as mud as man sat up, looked around, and
spoke. Man blinked. 'What is the purpose of all this?' he asked
politely.
'Everything must have a purpose?' asked God.
'Certainly,' said man.
'Then I leave to you to think of one for all this,' said God. And
He went away.

168.28
Someday, someday, this crazy world will have to end,
And our God will take things back that He to us did lend.
And if, on that sad day, you want to scold our God,
Why go right ahead and scold Him. He'll just smile and nod.

170.15
To whom it may concern: These people around you are almost
all the survivors on San Lorenzo of the winds that followed the
freezing of the sea. These people made a captive of the spurious
holy man named Bokonon. They brought him here, placed him at
their centre, and commanded him to tell them exactly what God
Almighty was up to and what they should now do. The mountebank
told them that God was surely trying to kill them, possibly because
He was through with them, and that they should have the good
manners to die. This, as you can see, they did.

177.14
Midget, midget, midget, how he truts and winks,
For he knows a man's as big as what he hopes and thinks!

177.23
The hand that stocks the drug stores rules the world.
Let us start our Republic with a chain of drug stores, a chain of
grocery stores, a chain of gas chambers, and a national game. After
that, we can write our Constitution.