Explore Quotes by Joseph Heller

mankind is resilient: the atrocities that horrified us a week ago become acceptable tomorrow.

But how can one be warm alone?

Insanity is contagious.

The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.

That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed. It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

I think that maybe inside any business, there is someone slowly going crazy

I don't think the 'what' distinguishes a good novel from a bad one but rather the 'how.'

I don't understand the process of imagination-though I know that I am very much at its mercy.

I write longhand and I type and I rewrite on the typed pages.

Nurse Duckett found Yossarian wonderful and was already trying to change him.

I think in every country that there is at least one executive who is scared of going crazy.

Gold was not altogether certain what, anatomically, a gorge was, but he knew that his was rising.

Remember that everyone deserves some fun during working hours.

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.

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.

Fortunately, just when things were blackest, the war broke out.

Just for once I'd like to see all these things sort of straightened out, with each person getting exactly what he deserves. It might give me some confidence in this universe.

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.

If God was dead, how could I feel this bad?

The Lord gave us farmers two strong hands so we could grab as much as we could with both of them.

The question is: what is a sane man to do in an insane society?