“Thanks to their decreased brainpower, people aren't diverted from the main business of life by the hobgoblins of opinion anymore.”

“One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.”

“But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned to a pillar of salt. So it goes. People aren't supposed to look back. I'm certainly not going to do it anymore.”

“all that has changed, in my opinion, is that, thanks to television, we can hide a great depression. we may even be hiding a third world war”

“There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.”

“Busy, busy, busy, is what we Bokononists whisper whenever we think of how complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is.”

“Thank God for novelists. Thank God there are people willing to write everything down. Otherwise, so much would be forgotten.”