Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
They couldn't keep Death out, but while she was in she had to act like a lady.
I don't believe in miracles because it's been a long time since we've had any.
The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.
It doesn't make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead.
All of our religions but the Judaic and the Greek think more of us dead than alive.
I've adjusted to this, that my books are not going to get unanimously good reviews.
From men motivated by moral certitude, history teaches, no lasting good ever comes.
There is no disappointment so numbing...as someone no better than you achieving more.
I don't think the 'what' distinguishes a good novel from a bad one but rather the 'how.'
It made him proud that 29 months in the service had not blunted his genius for ineptitude.
I think in every country that there is at least one executive who is scared of going crazy.
That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed. It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.
In the long run, failure was the only thing that worked predictably. All else was accidental.
I don't understand the process of imagination-though I know that I am very much at its mercy.
mankind is resilient: the atrocities that horrified us a week ago become acceptable tomorrow.
I had examined myself pretty thoroughly and discovered that I was unfit for military service.
Under Colonel Korn's rule, the only people permitted to ask questions were those who never did.
The smartest people in Washington are the political reporters. They write about their inferiors.
The Lord gave us farmers two strong hands so we could grab as much as we could with both of them.
Gold was not altogether certain what, anatomically, a gorge was, but he knew that his was rising.
I want to keep my dreams, even bad ones, because without them, I might have nothing all night long.
The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likable. In three days no one could stand him.
The problem with the loneliness I suffer is that the company of others has never been a cure for it.
Why are they going to disappear him?' I don't know.' It doesn't make sense. It isn't even good grammar.
I think that maybe in every company today there is always at least one person who is going crazy slowly.
Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.
[They] agreed that it was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything.
When I read something saying I've not done anything as good as 'Catch-22' I'm tempted to reply, 'Who has?'
I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private individuals.
There was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to.
There are yawning gulfs into which large chunks of me have fallen. I do not always know where I am at present.
Frankly, I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private industry.
Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them.
All of my books deal in a very rough, rude fashion with subjects about which there are great conflicts of opinion.
The villains will come along. There were plenty in the Carter administration, and there will be plenty with Reagan.
Clevinger had a mind, and Lieutenant Scheisskoph had noticed that people with minds tended to get pretty smart at times.
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.
The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.
I’m not running away from my responsibilities. I’m running to them. There’s nothing negative about running away to save my life.
Where were you born?" "On a battlefield," [Yossarian] answered. "No, no. In what state were you born?" "In a state of innocence.
I could not write about a subject sacred to me because I would be too flippant. Fortunately, there are no subjects sacred to me.
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?
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.
Prostitution gives her an opportunity to meet people. It provides fresh air and wholesome exercise, and it keeps her out of trouble.
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.
Death to all modifiers, he declared one day, and out of every letter that passed through his hands went every adverb and every adjective.
You know, that might be the answer - to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of. That's a trick that never seems to fail.
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.
In short, Clevinger was one of those people with lots of intelligence and no brains, and everyone knew it except those who soon found it out.
You have no respect for excessive authority or obsolete traditions. You're dangerous and depraved, and you ought to be taken outside and shot!