Home > Work > Catch-22

Catch-22 QUOTES

Catch-22 QUOTES

61 " When people disagreed with him he urged them to be objective. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

62 " Actually there were many officers' clubs that Yossarian had not helped build, but he was proudest of the one on Pianosa. It was a sturdy and complex monument to his powers of determination. Yossarian never went there to help until it was finished; then he went there often, so pleased was he with the large , fine, rambling shingled building. It was a truly splendid building, and Yossarian throbbed with a mighty sense of accomplishment each time he gazed at it and reflected that none of the work that had gone into it was his. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

63 " I am miracle ingredient Z-247. I'm immense. I'm a real, slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger. I'm a bona fide supraman. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

64 " Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity trust upon them. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

65 " where are the snowdens of yesteryear? "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

66 " That crazy bastard may be the only sane one left. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

67 " The chaplain had mastered, in a moment of divine intuition, the handy technique of protective rationalization, and he was exhilarated by his discovery. It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

68 " You're an intelligent person of great moral character who has taken a very courageous stand. I'm an intelligent person with no moral character at all, so I'm in an ideal position to appreciate it. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

69 " I wouldn't want to live without strong misgivings. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

70 " While none of the work we do is very important, it is important that we do a great deal of it. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

71 " The enemy," retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, "is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on, and that includes Colonel Cathcart. And don't you forget that, because the longer you remember it, the longer you might live. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

72 " Death to all modifiers, he declared one day, and out of every letter that passed through his hands went every adverb and every adjective. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

73 " Major Major had lied, and it was good. He was not really surprised that it was good, for he had observed that people who did lie were, on the whole, more resourceful and ambitious and successful than people who did not lie. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

74 " He was sick with lust and mesmerized with regret "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

75 " As always occurred when he quarreled over principles in which he believed passionately, he would end up gasping furiously for air and blinking back bitter tears of conviction. There were many principles in which Clevinger believed passionately. He was crazy. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

76 " I'll tell you what justice is. Justice is a knee in the gut from the floor on the chin at night sneaky with a knife brought up down on the magazine of a battleship sandbagged underhanded in the dark without a word of warning "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

77 " Clevinger was a troublemaker and a wise guy. Lieutenant Scheisskopf knew that Clevinger might cause even more trouble if he wasn't watched. Yesterday it was the cadet officers; tomorrow it might be the world. Clevinger had a mind, and Lieutenant Scheisskopf had noticed that people with minds tended to get pretty smart at times. Such men were dangerous, and even the new cadet officers whom Clevinger had helped into office were eager to give damning testimony against him. The case against Clevinger was open and shut. The only thing missing was something to charge him with. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

78 " I did it to protect my good reputation in case anyone ever caught me walking around with crab apples in my cheeks. With rubber balls in my hands I could deny there were crab apples in my cheeks. Everytime someone asked me why I was walking around with crab apples in my cheeks, I'd just open my hands and show them it was rubber balls I was walking around with, not crab apples, and that they were in my hands, not my cheeks. It was a good story, but I never knew if it got across or not, since its pretty hard to make people understand you when your talking to them with two crab apples in your cheeks. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

79 " You wouldn’t be normal if you were never afraid. Even the bravest men experience fear. One of the biggest jobs we all face in combat is to overcome fear. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22

80 " Under Colonel Korn's rule, the only people permitted to ask questions were those who never did. Soon the only people attending were those who never asked questions, and the sessions were discontinued altogether, since Clevinger, the corporal and Colonel Korn agreed that it was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything. "

― Joseph Heller , Catch-22