"Insanity is contagious."
Read quote
15 likes
Quote collection
Joseph Heller quotes (page 2 of 8)
155 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"They can do anything we can't stop them from doing."
Read quote
14 likes
"Success and failure are both difficult to endure. Along with success come drugs, divorce, fornication, bullying, travel, meditation, medication, depression, neurosis and suicide. With failure comes failure."
Read quote
14 likes
"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22. 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."
Read quote
14 likes
"He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt."
Read quote
13 likes
"It is the anonymous "they," the enigmatic "they" who are in charge. Who is "they"? I don't know. Nobody knows. Not even "they" themselves."
Read quote
13 likes
"There was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to."
Read quote
13 likes
"Everyone in my book accuses everyone else of being crazy. Frankly, I think the whole society is nuts - and the question is: What does a sane man do in an insane society?"
Read quote
13 likes
"I’m not running away from my responsibilities. I’m running to them. There’s nothing negative about running away to save my life."
Read quote
12 likes
"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."
Read quote
12 likes
"The night was full of horrors, and he thought he knew how Christ must have felt as he walked through the world, like a psychiatrist through a ward full of nuts."
Read quote
11 likes
"I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private individuals."
Read quote
11 likes
"Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them."
Read quote
9 likes
"You have no respect for excessive authority or obsolete traditions. You're dangerous and depraved, and you ought to be taken outside and shot!"
Read quote
9 likes
"I think that maybe in every company today there is always at least one person who is going crazy slowly."
Read quote
9 likes
"There is no disappointment so numbing...as someone no better than you achieving more."
Read quote
9 likes
"She was the epitome of stately sorrow each time she smiled."
Read quote
9 likes
"Man was matter, that was Snowden's secret. Drop him out a window, and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden's secret. Ripeness was all."
Read quote
9 likes
"Hungry Joe collected lists of fatal diseases and arranged them in alphabetical order so that he could put his finger without delay on any one he wanted to worry about."
Read quote
9 likes
"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."
Read quote
9 likes