“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

“If you want to really hurt you parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a...”

“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”

“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.”

“She was a fool, and so am I, and so is anyone who thinks he sees what God is Doing, [writes Bokonon].”

“Nothing is generous. New knowledge is a valuable commodity. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we are.”

“But people didn't have to pay as much attention to the awful truth. As the living legend of the cruel tyrant in the city and the gentle holy man in the jungle grew, so, too, did the happines...”

“Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.”

“Americans... are forever searching for love in forms it never takes, in places it can never be. It must have something to do with the vanished frontier.”