Kurt Vonnegut — Quote from Slaughterhouse-Five
“So it goes.”
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
Concepts: absurd, meaning
Resonant Quotes
- “Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter.” — Albert Camus, The Stranger Both phrases serve as mantras of acceptance in the face of mortality and meaninglessness, though Vonnegut's carries a...
- “I had lived my life one way and I could just as well have lived it another. I...” — Albert Camus, The Stranger Both express profound acceptance of life's arbitrariness—Camus through philosophical recognition of choice's ultimate...
- “People never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as ano...” — Albert Camus, The Stranger Both express a fatalistic acceptance of existence's unchangeable nature—Camus through resigned indifference to life's...
- “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort o...” — Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science Nietzsche's anguished confrontation with meaninglessness after God's death finds echo in Vonnegut's resigned acceptan...
- “Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness ...” — Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea Both express stoic acceptance of existential arbitrariness, with Vonnegut's refrain echoing Sartre's vision of life's...
- “Arrange whatever pieces come your way.” — Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse Both phrases embody forms of acceptance, but Woolf's implies active creative engagement with circumstances while Vonn...
- “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” — Søren Kierkegaard, Journals Both expressions capture the human condition of living within temporal limitation—Kierkegaard's forward movement with...
- “The darker the night, the brighter the stars. The deeper the grief, the close...” — Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment These represent opposing philosophical responses to suffering—Dostoevsky's redemptive vision of grief bringing divine...