The Daily Optimist
March 20  ·  Kindness

Why Did Kurt Vonnegut Say There's Only One Rule?

There's only one rule I know of, babies , you've got to be kind.
— Kurt Vonnegut
"God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, " 1965

Vonnegut packed more wisdom into that sentence than most philosophers manage in a career.

Kindness isn't a soft word. It's the hardest kind of optimism , the kind that extends to strangers, to people who haven't earned it, to the checkout clerk who looks like they've had a terrible week.

Fred Rogers built an entire world around this idea. Not that the world is already kind, but that it could be , if enough people practiced it.

One rule. That's all. You've got to be kind.

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