Bokonon Quotes

All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

IF YOU FIND YOUR LIFE tangled up with somebody else's life for no very logical reasons," writes Bokonon, "that person may be a member of your karass." At ~ Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

History!" writes Bokonon. "Read it and weep! ~ Kurt Vonnegut

I do not intend that this book be a tract on behalf of Bokononism. I should like to offer a Bokononist warning about it, however. The first sentence in The Books of Bokonon is this: "All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies." My Bokononist warning is this: Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either. So be it. *** ~ Kurt Vonnegut

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

Well, when it became evident that no governmental or economic reform was going to make the people much less miserable, the religion became the one real instrument of hope. Truth was the enemy of the people, because the truth was so terrible, so Bokonon made it his business to provide the people with better and better lies. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

I walked away from Frank, just as The Books of Bokonon advised me to do. "Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before," Bokonon tells us. "He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way. ~ Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

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 just go ahead and scold Him. He'll just smile and nod. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

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. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Man created the checkerboard; God created the karass. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

And what opinion did Bokonon hold of his own cosmogony?
"Foma! Lies!" he wrote. "A pack of foma! ~ Kurt Vonnegut

How complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Live by the foma(Harmless untruths) that make you brave
and kind and healthy and happy. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

As Bokonon says: 'peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from god. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

If I am ever put to death on the hook, expect a very human performance. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

The words were a paraphrase of the suggestion of Jesus: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's."
Bokonon's paraphrase was this:
"Pay no attention to Caesar. Caesar doesn't have the slightest idea what's really going on. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

After the thing went off, after it was a sure thing that America could wipe out a city with just one bomb, a scientist turned to Father and said, 'Science has now known sin.' And do you know what Father said? He said, 'What is sin? ~ Kurt Vonnegut