“The chaplain had mastered, in a moment of divine intuition, the handy technique of protective rationalization, and he was exhilarated by his discovery. It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”
Catch-22 (1961)
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Joseph Heller 132
American author 1923–1999Related quotes
“Education with humility leads to wisdom; without humility, it leads to arrogance.”
Bishop Daly: Catholic schools should embrace faith, never compromise https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/46624/bishop-daly-catholic-schools-should-embrace-faith-never-compromise (18 November 2020)
Hansard HC 6ser vol 243 col 437 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199394/cmhansrd/1994-05-12/Debate-1.html
Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat MP and colleague at the Scottish bar.
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Hansard HC 6ser vol 243 col 437 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199394/cmhansrd/1994-05-12/Debate-1.html
Paying tribute to Labour Party leader John Smith, a friend at the Scottish Bar, in the House of Commons on 12 May 1994.

The Cornerstone Speech (1861)
Context: We have intelligence, and virtue, and patriotism. All that is required is to cultivate and perpetuate these. Intelligence will not do without virtue. France was a nation of philosophers. These philosophers become Jacobins. They lacked that virtue, that devotion to moral principle, and that patriotism which is essential to good government. Organized upon principles of perfect justice and right-seeking amity and friendship with all other powers-I see no obstacle in the way of our upward and onward progress. Our growth, by accessions from other States, will depend greatly upon whether we present to the world, as I trust we shall, a better government than that to which neighboring States belong. If we do this, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas cannot hesitate long; neither can Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. They will necessarily gravitate to us by an imperious law. We made ample provision in our constitution for the admission of other States; it is more guarded, and wisely so, I think, than the old constitution on the same subject, but not too guarded to receive them as fast as it may be proper. Looking to the distant future, and, perhaps, not very far distant either, it is not beyond the range of possibility, and even probability, that all the great States of the north-west will gravitate this way, as well as Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, etc. Should they do so, our doors are wide enough to receive them, but not until they are ready to assimilate with us in principle.

Fra tutti il primo Arnaldo Danïello
Gran maestro d'amor; ch'a la sua terra
Ancor fa onor col suo dir strano e bello.
Petrarch Il Trionfo d'Amore, capitolo IV, line 40; uncredited translation from petrarch.petersadlon.com http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/read_trionfi.html?page=I-IV.en
Criticism

“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”
Source: Wealth, War, and Wisdom

“Arrogance cannot bear to see itself scorned and humility held in honor.”
One Hundred and Fifty-three Practical and Theological Texts, in Philokalia, Text 13