Quote collection
155 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Catch-22 did not exist, he was positive of that, but it made no difference. What did matter was that everyone thought it existed, and that was much worse, for there was no object or text to ridicule or refute, to accuse, criticize, attack, amend, hate, revile, spit at, rip to shreds, trample upon or burn up."
"There's a rule saying I have to ground anyone who's crazy ... There's a catch. Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy."
"When people disagreed with him he urged them to be objective."
"He was sick with lust and mesmerized with regret"
"Men," he began his address to the officers, measuring his pauses carefully. "You're American officers. The officers of no other army in the world can make that statement. Think about it."
"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."
"If a man is going to leave one wife to marry another, it's better if he divorces the first before he marries the second."
"He was never without misery, and never without hope."
"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."
"Well, he died. You don't get any older than that."
"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?"
"Why are they going to disappear him?' I don't know.' It doesn't make sense. It isn't even good grammar."
"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."
"There are yawning gulfs into which large chunks of me have fallen. I do not always know where I am at present."
"Something did happen to me somewhere that robbed me of confidence and courage and left me with a fear of discovery and change and a positive dread of everything unknown that may occur."