Quotes of Bokonon

Some Favourite Lines

"Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy." 

"Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything." 

"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way." 

"It's never a mistake to say good-bye" 

Jesus once said, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's". Which Bokonon paraphrased, "Pay no attention to Caesar. Caesar doesn't have the slightest idea what's really going on." 

"As it was meant to happen" 

Concerning the Karass

"Man created the checkerboard; God created the karass." 

"Likes and dislikes have nothing to do with it." 

"Wampeters come and wampeters go" 

"No karass is without a wampeter, just as no wheel is without a hub." 

"A true duprass can't be invaded, not even by children born of such a union." 

"Members of a duprass always die within a week of each other." 

"A duprass is a a valuable instrument for gaining and developing, in the privacy of an interminable love affair, insights that are queer but true." 

"A duprass is also a sweetly conceited establishment." 

Speaking Generally

"Write it all down. Without accurate records of the past, how can men and women be expected to avoid making serious mistakes in the future?" 

"History! Read it and weep!" 

"God never wrote a good play in His Life." 

"Sometimes pool-pah exceeds the power of humans to comment." 

"Any man can call time out, but no man can say how long the time out will be." 

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

"Today I will be a Bulgarian Minister of Education. Tomorrow I will be Helen ' of Troy." 

"Midget, midget, midget, how he struts and winks, For he knows a man's as big as what he hopes and thinks!" 

"The hand that stocks the drug stores rules the world. Let us start our Republic, with a chain of drug stores, a chain of grocery stores, a chain of gas chambers, and a national game. After that we can write our Constitution."