“ I think that maybe in every company today there is always at least one person who is going crazy slowly. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 185
“ I want to keep my dreams, even bad ones, because without them, I might have nothing all night long. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 4K
“ Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 2.1K
“ There was only one catch and that was Catch22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch22 and let out a respectful whistle. "That's some catch, that Catch22," he observed. "It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 1.2K
“ Why are they going to disappear him?' I don't know.' It doesn't make sense. It isn't even good grammar. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 1.6K
“ So many things were testing his faith. There was the Bible, of course, but the Bible was a book, and so were Bleak House, Treasure Island, Ethan Frome and The Last of the Mohicans. Did it then seem probable, as he had once overheard Dunbar ask, that the answers to riddles of creation would be supplied by people too ignorant to understand the mechanics of rainfall? Had Almighty God, in all His infinite wisdom, really been afraid that men six thousand years ago would succeed in building a tower to heaven? ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 1.9K
“ History did not demand Yossarian's premature demise, justice could be satisfied without it, progress did not hinge upon it, victory did not depend on it. That men would die was a matter of necessity; WHICH men would die, though, was a matter of circumstance, and Yossarian was willing to be the victim of anything but circumstance. But that was war. Just about all he could find in its favor was that it paid well and liberated children from the pernicious influence of their parents. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 1.9K
“ They couldn't keep Death out, but while she was in she had to act like a lady. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 3.8K
“ Four times during the first six days they were assembled and briefed and then sent back. Once, they took off and were flying in formation when the control tower summoned them down. The more it rained, the worse they suffered. The worse they suffered, the more they prayed that it would continue raining. All through the night, men looked at the sky and were saddened by the stars. All through the day, they looked at the bomb line on the big, wobbling easel map of Italy that blew over in the wind and was dragged in under the awning of the intelligence tent every time the rain began. The bomb line was a scarlet band of narrow satin ribbon that delineated the forward most position of the Allied ground forces in every sector of the Italian mainland. For hours they stared relentlessly at the scarlet ribbon on the map and hated it because it would not move up high enough to encompass the city. When night fell, they congregated in the darkness with flashlights, continuing their macabre vigil at the bomb line in brooding entreaty as though hoping to move the ribbon up by the collective weight of their sullen prayers. "I really can't believe it," Clevinger exclaimed to Yossarian in a voice rising and falling in protest and wonder. "It's a complete reversion to primitive superstition. They're confusing cause and effect. It makes as much sense as knocking on wood or crossing your fingers. They really believe that we wouldn't have to fly that mission tomorrow if someone would only tiptoe up to the map in the middle of the night and move the bomb line over Bologna. Can you imagine? You and I must be the only rational ones left." In the middle of the night Yossarian knocked on wood, crossed his fingers, and tiptoed out of his tent to move the bomb line up over Bologna. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 1.1K
“ What the hell are you getting so upset about?" he asked her bewilderedly in a tone of contrite amusement. "I thought you didn't believe in God." "I don't," she sobbed, bursting violently into tears. "But the God I don't believe in is a good God, a just God, a merciful God. He's not the mean and stupid God you make Him out to be. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 2.6K
“ Four times during the first six days they were assembled and briefed and then sent back. Once, they took off and were flying in formation when the control tower summoned them down. The more it rained, the worse they suffered. The worse they suffered, the more they prayed that it would continue raining. All through the night, men looked at the sky and were saddened by the stars. All through the day, they looked at the bomb line on the big, wobbling easel map of Italy that blew over in the wind and was dragged in under the awning of the intelligence tent every time the rain began. The bomb line was a scarlet band of narrow satin ribbon that delineated the forward most position of the Allied ground forces in every sector of the Italian mainland. For hours they stared relentlessly at the scarlet ribbon on the map and hated it because it would not move up high enough to encompass the city. When night fell, they congregated in the darkness with flashlights, continuing their macabre vigil at the bomb line in brooding entreaty as though hoping to move the ribbon up by the collective weight of their sullen prayers. "I really can't believe it," Clevinger exclaimed to Yossarian in a voice rising and falling in protest and wonder. "It's a complete reversion to primitive superstition. They're confusing cause and effect. It makes as much sense as knocking on wood or crossing your fingers. They really believe that we wouldn't have to fly that mission tomorrow if someone would only tiptoe up to the map in the middle of the night and move the bomb line over Bologna. Can you imagine? You and I must be the only rational ones left." In the middle of the night Yossarian knocked on wood, crossed his fingers, and tiptoed out of his tent to move the bomb line up over Bologna. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 371
“ There's nothing mysterious about it, He's not working at all. He's playing. Or else He's forgotten all about us. That's the kind of God you people talk about, a country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed. Good God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of Creation? What in the world was running through that warped, evil, scatological mind of His when He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements? Why in the world did He ever create pain? ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 631
“ You're inches away from death every time you go on a mission. How much older can you be at your age? A half minute before that you were stepping into high school, and an unhooked brassiere was as close as you ever hoped to get to Paradise. Only a fifth of a second before that you were a small kid with a tenweek summer vacation that lasted a hundred thousand years and still ended too soon. Zip! They go rocketing by so fast. How the hell else are you ever going to slow down? ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 1.4K
“ I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private individuals. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 2.2K
“ Like Olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 2.9K
“ Like Olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 3.6K
“ I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private individuals. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 1.8K
“ War... it paid well and liberated children from the pernicious influence of their parents. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 823
“ Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 991
“ The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 3.7K
“ A large part of the public sentiment was my own,... They saw an absurd quality, a mendacious quality in many of our political leaders and business leaders. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 516
“ Frankly, I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private industry. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 3.1K
“ Frankly, I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private industry. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 3.4K
“ Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 2.1K
“ Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it's to seem long. But in that event, who wants one? ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 2.8K
“ I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private individuals. ”
- Joseph Heller- Copy
- 3.3K
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7