Kurt Vonnegut never gave the MIT graduation speech for which he often receives the credit: the so-called “sunscreen speech.” He did comment that he would have been proud if the words had indeed been his. I have always loved Kurt Vonnegut and I loved to teach any of his novels to my high school classes. (Not sure my students loved them quite so much!)

Anyway, the author of that famous non-speech dispenses advice for a happy life. Recently I had occasion to read the piece again. Here is a quote that is priceless, and probably timeless as well.

“Accept certain inalienable truths. Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.”

Sad but true . . .

Duke