Joseph Heller Quotes (132 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Variant: Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity trust upon them.
Source: Catch-22 (1961)
Context: Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three.

“… [A]nything worth dying for… is certainly worth living for.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

“There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, 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.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Catch-22 (1961)
Context: There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, 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. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. "That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed. "It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

“The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likeable. In three days no one could stand him.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Catch-22 (1961)

“The only wisdom I think I've attained is the wisdom to be skeptical of other people's ideology and other people's arguments. I tend to be a skeptic, I don't like dogmatic approaches by anybody.”

Joseph Heller

In an interview for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: "Joseph Heller - Closing Time" (1998) by Ramona Koval http://web.archive.org/web/20000306044602/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/bwriting/heller.htm  <br class="br">Context: The only wisdom I think I've attained is the wisdom to be skeptical of other people's ideology and other people's arguments. I tend to be a skeptic, I don't like dogmatic approaches by anybody. I don't like intolerance and a dogmatic person is intolerant of other people. It's one of the reasons I keep a distance from all religious beliefs. I think in this country and in Australia too there's a late intolerance in most religions, an intolerance, a part that could easily become persecutions.<br>We have some ultra-orthodox Jewish sects here in New York and I fear them as much as I would fear a Nazi organisation.

“The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22 (1961)

“He knew everything there was to know about literature, except how to enjoy it”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

“Insanity is contagious.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

“Open your eyes, Clevinger. It doesn't make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22 (1961)

“Why are they going to disappear him?'
I don't know.'
It doesn't make sense. It isn't even good grammar.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

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

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

“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.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22 (1961)
Context: Yossarian was cold, too, and shivering uncontrollably.... It was easy to read the message in his entrails. 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.

“The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likeable. In three days no one could stand him.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22 (1961)

“Be glad you're even alive.'
Be furious you're going to die.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch 22

“I want to keep my dreams, even bad ones, because without them, I might have nothing all night long.”

Joseph Heller

““From now on I'm thinking only of me.” Major Danby replied indulgently with a superior smile: “But, Yossarian, suppose everyone felt that way?” “Then,” said Yossarian, “I'd certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way, wouldn't I?””

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22 (1961)

“Every writer I know has trouble writing.”