“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. — Kurt Vonnegut

Author Kurt Vonnegut once said, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

This is the only story of mine whose moral I know.

I don’t think it’s a marvelous moral; I simply happen to know what it is:

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

…

And yet another moral occurs to me now:

Make love when you can.

It’s good for you.

– Kurt Vonnegut, Iowa City, 1966

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

a man defines himself by his make-believe as well as by his sincere impulses.

You see, I have always found it difficult to understand that in fact one can only be oneself. Who else could you be? Changeability and hypocrisy and performance are parts of who we are. And what is empirical reality, anyway?