I was not an anthropology student prior to the war. I took it up as part of a personal readjustment following some bewildering experiences as an infantryman and later as a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany. The science of the Study of Man has been extremely satisfactory from that personal standpoint.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on how personal experiences shaped a newfound interest in anthropology for the author.
In this quote, Kurt Vonnegut discusses how his harrowing experiences as an infantryman and a prisoner of war during World War II led him to pursue anthropology. This new focus on the study of humanity became a means of personal readjustment, suggesting that understanding human behavior and society can provide comfort and insight after trauma.
In practice
In a speech about the impact of war on mental health, you could use this quote to illustrate the importance of understanding human experiences.
But by accident, not by cunning calculation, books, because of their weight and texture, and because of their sweetly token resistance to manipulation, involve our hands and eyes, and then our minds and souls, in a spiritual adventure I would be very sorry for my grandchildren not to know about.
How subservient to Jesus, or to a humane God Almighty, were the leaders of this country back in the 1840's, when Marx said such a supposedly evil thing about religion? They had made it perfectly legal to own human slaves, and weren't going to led women vote or hold public office, God forbid, for another eighty year.
All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let's get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States - and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death!
Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies - "God damn it, you've got to be kind."
If what Billy Pilgrim learned from the Tralfamadorians is true, that we will all live forever, no matter how dead we may sometimes seem to be, I am not overjoyed. Still--if I am going to spend eternity visiting this moment and that, I'm grateful that so many of those moments are nice.
Plato says that the unexamined life is not worth living. But what if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well?
Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.
By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.
One of the most dysfunctional beliefs of successful people is our contempt for simplicity and structure. We believe that we are above needing structure to help us on seemingly simple tasks.
We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.
Yield not thy neck_x000D_ _x000D_ To fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind_x000D_ _x000D_ Still ride in triumph over all mischance._x000D_ _x000D_ In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands_x000D_ _x000D_ that work on us.
He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.
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