"Here is how the pirates were able to take whatever they wanted from anybody else: they had the best boats in the world, and they were meaner than anybody else, and they had gunpowder, which was a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulphur. They touched this seemingly listless powder with fire, and it turned violently into gas. This gas blew projectiles out of metal tubes at terrific velocities. The projectiles cut through meat and bone very easily; so the pirates could wreck the wiring or the bellows or the plumbing of a stubborn human being, even when he was far, far away. The chief weapon of the sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it was much too late, how heartless and greedy they were."
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AbsurdistsNovelists from the United StatesAcademics from the United StatesHumanistsAgnostics from the United States
Original Language: English
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Kurt Vonnegut
1922 – 2007
US-amerikanischer Schriftsteller
344 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Kurt Vonnegut →
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