Everything’s promotion. Ever stop to think about that? Everything you think you think because somebody promoted the ideas. Education- nothing but promotion.
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Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
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Things are certainly set up for a class war based on conveniently established lines of demarkation. And I must say that the basic assumption of the present setup is a grade-A incitement to violence: the smarter you are, the better you are. Used to be the richer you were, the better you were. Either one is, you’ll admit, pretty tough for the have-not’s to take. The criterion for brains is better than the one of money…
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Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
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It isn’t knowledge that’s making trouble, but the uses it’s put to.
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Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
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Better to be nothing than a blind doorman at the head of civilization’s parade.
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Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
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Fairness is a concept that holds only to limited situations. Yet we want the concept to extend to everything, in and out of phase.
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Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the end of the World
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Only where there is disillusionment and depression and sorrow does happiness arise; without the despair of loss, there is no hope.
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Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
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…posters have a way of looking better than the real thing: the reality never lived up to the expectation.
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Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
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Some folks collect stamps, some folks collect records. Me, I collect skulls. Takes all kinds t’make a world, eh?
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Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
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For only through assiduous repetition is it possible to redistribute skewed tendencies.
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Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
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That’s how stories happen – with a turning point, an unexpected twist. There’s only one kind of happiness, but misfortune comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.
The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a persons conscience.
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Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
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The free thinking of one age is the common sense of the next.
Anything that can be done chemically can be done by other means.
The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
You’re antagonistic to the idea of being robbed, exploited, degraded, humiliated or deceived. Misery depresses you. Ignorance depresses you. Persecution depresses you. Violence depresses you. Slums depress you. Greed depresses you. Crime depresses you. Corruption depresses you. You know, it wouldn’t surprise me if you’re a manic-depressive!
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Joseph Heller, Catch-22
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