Joseph Heller Quotes
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Rise above principal and do what's right.
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Peace on earth would mean the end of civilization as we know it.
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All of our religions but the Judaic and the Greek think more of us dead than alive.
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Why are they going to disappear him?' I don't know.' It doesn't make sense. It isn't even good grammar.
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Gold was not sure of many things, but he was definite about one: for every successful person he knew, he could name at least two others of greater ability, better, and higher intelligence who, by comparison, had failed.
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The frog is almost five hundred million years old. Could you really say with much certainty that America, with all its strength and prosperity, with its fighting man that is second to none, and with its standard of living that is highest in the world, will last as long as...the frog?
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Yossarian decided to change the subject. "Now you're changing the subject." he pointed out diplomatically. "I'll bet I can name two things to be miserable about for every one you can name to be thankful for.
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If Richard Nixon was second-rate, what in the world is third-rate?
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Now you've given them hope, and they're unhappy. So the blame is all yours.
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I can't start writing until I have a closing line.
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Major Major never sees anyone in his office while he's in his office.
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You have deep-seated survival anxieties. And you don't like bigots, bullies, snobs or hypocrites. Subconsciously there are many people you hate." "Consciously, sir, consciously," Yossarian corrected in an effort to help. "I hate them consciously.
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Men went mad and were rewarded with medals.
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I could not write about a subject sacred to me because I would be too flippant. Fortunately, there are no subjects sacred to me.
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There was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to.
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I don't think it's good to achieve too much at too early an age. What else can the future give you if you've already got all that your imagination has dreamt up for you? A writer is only discovered once in a lifetime, and if it happens very early the impossibility of matching that moment again can have a somewhat corrosive effect on his personality and indeed on the work itself.
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I don't believe in miracles because it's been a long time since we've had any.
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Nurse Duckett found Yossarian wonderful and was already trying to change him.
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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.
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If God was dead, how could I feel this bad?
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After he made up his mind to spend the rest of the war in the hospital, Yossarian wrote letters to everyone he knew saying that he was in the hospital but never mentioning why. One day he had a better idea. To everyone he knew he wrote that he was going on a very dangerous mission. "They asked for volunteers. It's very dangerous, but someone has to do it. I'll write you the instant I get back." And he had not written anyone since.
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They can do anything we can't stop them from doing.
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She was the epitome of stately sorrow each time she smiled.
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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.