Welcome to the world of Catch 22 quotes! Here, you will find some of the most memorable and meaningful quotes from the classic novel, Catch 22. Written by American author Joseph Heller, Catch 22 is a satirical war novel that follows the story of Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B–25 bombardier who is trying to survive the insanity of World War II. Through Yossarian‘s journey and experiences, Heller uses dark humor to explore themes of bureaucracy, the absurdity of war, and the absurdity of life. Enjoy exploring the world of Catch 22 Quotes!
The Best Catch-22 Quotes About Power
đź’ ”Everyone teaches us to aspire to higher things. A general is higher than a colonel, and a colonel is higher than a lieutenant colonel. So we’re both aspiring.”
đź’ ”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.”
đź’ ”Justice is a knee in the gut from the floor on the chin at night sneaky with a knife brought up down on the magazine of a battleship sandbagged underhanded in the dark without a word of warning.”
đź’ ”Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.”
“The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.”
đź’ ”There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind.”
đź’ ”Under Colonel Korn’s rule, the only people permitted to ask questions were those who never did.”
đź’ ”When I look up, I see people cashing in. I don’t see heaven or saints or angels. I see people cashing in on every decent impulse and every human tragedy.”
đź’ ”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.”
The Best Catch-22 Quotes About Faith
“All through the night, men looked at the sky and were saddened by the stars.”
đź’ ”As always occurred when he quarreled over principles in which he believed passionately, he would end up gasping furiously for air and blinking back bitter tears of conviction.”
đź’ ”Catch-22 did not exist, he was positive of that, but it made no difference. What did matter was that everyone thought it existed, and that was much worse, for there was no object or text to ridicule or refute, to accuse, criticize, attack, amend, hate, revile, spit at, rip to shreds, trample upon or burn up.”
đź’ ”He was never without misery, and never without hope.”
đź’ ”I wouldn’t want to live without strong misgivings.”
đź’ ”So many things were testing his faith. There was the Bible, of course, but the Bible was a book, and so were Bleak House, Treasure Island, Ethan Frome and The Last of the Mohicans. Did it then seem probable, as he had once overheard Dunbar ask, that the answers to riddles of creation would be supplied by people too ignorant to understand the mechanics of rainfall?”
đź’ ”There was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to.”
đź’ ”There’s nothing so mysterious about it. He’s not working at all. He’s playing. Or else He’s forgotten all about us. That’s the kind of God you people talk about—a country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed.'”
đź’ ”What a lousy earth! He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused, or abandoned. How many families hungered for food they could not afford to buy? How many hearts were broken?”
đź’ ”When you consider the opportunity and power He had to really do a job, and then look at the stupid, ugly little mess He made of it instead, His sheer incompetence is almost staggering.”
The Best Catch-22 Quotes About Death
đź’ ”Be glad you’re even alive. Be furious you’re going to die.”
“Death was irreversible, he suspected, and he began to think he was going to lose.”
đź’ ”He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt.”
đź’ ”History did not demand Yossarian’s premature demise, justice could be satisfied without it, progress did not hinge upon it, victory did not depend on it. That men would die was a matter of necessity; which men would die, though, was a matter of circumstance, and Yossarian was willing to be the victim of anything but circumstance.”
đź’ ”Man was matter… 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.”
đź’ ”Of course you’re dying. We’re all dying. Where the devil else do you think you’re heading?”
đź’ ”They couldn’t dominate Death inside the hospital, but they certainly made her behave. They had taught her manners.”
đź’ ”They couldn’t keep Death out, but while she was in she had to act like a lady.”
đź’ ”Well, he died. You don’t get any older than that.”
đź’ ”What is a country? A country is a piece of land surrounded on all sides by boundaries, usually unnatural…There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war. Surely so many countries can’t all be worth dying for.”
đź’ ”You wouldn’t be normal if you were never afraid. Even the bravest men experience fear. One of the biggest jobs we all face in combat is to overcome fear.”
đź’ ”You’re inches away from death every time you go on a mission. How much older can you be at your age? A half minute before that you were stepping into high school, and an unhooked brassiere was as close as you ever hoped to get to Paradise. Only a fifth of a second before that you were a small kid with a ten-week summer vacation that lasted a hundred thousand years and still ended too soon.”
Catch-22 Quotes By Joseph Heller
💠“Anything worth dying for … is certainly worth living for.”
💠“From now on I’m thinking only of me.”
💠“He knew everything there was to know about literature, except how to enjoy it”
“He was a self-made man who owed his lack of success to nobody.”
💠“He was going to live forever, or die in the attempt.”― Joseph Heller, Catch-22
💠“Insanity is contagious.”
💠“It doesn’t make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who’s dead.”
💠“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.”
💠“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”― Joseph Heller, 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.”
💠“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. Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was.”
💠“The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.”
💠“The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he is on.”
💠“The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likable. In three days no one could stand him.”
💠“There’s nothing mysterious about it, He’s not working at all. He’s playing. Or else He’s forgotten all about us. That’s the kind of God you people talk about, a country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed. Good God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of Creation? What in the world was running through that warped, evil, scatological mind of His when He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements? Why in the world did He ever create pain?”
💠“They agreed that it was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything.”
💠“Well, he died. You don’t get any older than that.”
💠“What a lousy earth! He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused, or abandoned. How many families hungered for food they could not afford to buy? How many hearts were broken? How many suicides would take place that same night, how many people would go insane? How many cockroaches and landlords would triumph? How many winners were losers, successes failures, and rich men poor men? How many wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to bodyguards, how many had never had souls? How many straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many best families were worst families and how many good people were bad people? When you added them all up and then subtracted, you might be left with only the children, and perhaps with Albert Einstein and an old violinist or sculptor somewhere.”
💠“What is a country? A country is a piece of land surrounded on all sides by boundaries, usually unnatural. Englishmen are dying for England, Americans are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany, Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war. Surely so many countries can’t all be worth dying for.”
💠“When I look up, I see people cashing in. I don’t see heaven or saints or angels. I see people cashing in on every decent impulse and every human tragedy.”
💠“Why are they going to disappear him?’
💠“You have a morbid aversion to dying. You probably resent the fact that you’re at war and might get your head blown off any second.”
💠“You have deep-seated survival anxieties. And you don’t like bigots, bullies, snobs or hypocrites. Subconsciously there are many people you hate.”
💠“The captain answered frankly. “I get wet.”
The Best Book Quotes From Catch-22
💠“Be furious you’re going to die.”
💠“A little grease is what makes this world go round. One hand washes the other. Know what I mean? You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”
💠“Anything worth living for is worth dying for.”
“From now on I’m thinking only of me.”
💠“He knew everything there was to know about literature, except how to enjoy it.”
💠“He was a self-made man who owed his lack of success to nobody.”
💠“He was going to live forever, or die in the attempt.”
💠“He was never without misery, and never without hope.”
💠“I hate them consciously.”
💠“If you’re going to be shot, whose side do you expect me to be on?”
💠“Insanity is contagious.”
💠“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”
💠“She was the epitome of stately sorrow each time she smiled.”
💠“Surely so many countries can’t all be worth dying for.”
💠“The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.”
💠“The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he is on.”
💠“The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likable. In three days no one could stand him.”
💠“There was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to.”
💠“They agreed that it was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything.”
💠“Well, he died. You don’t get any older than that.”
💠“When I look up, I see people cashing in. I don’t see heaven or saints or angels. I see people cashing in on every decent impulse and every human tragedy.”
💠“Why are they going to disappear him?”
💠“You have deep-seated survival anxieties. And you don’t like bigots, bullies, snobs or hypocrites. Subconsciously there are many people you hate.”
💠“You have no respect for excessive authority or obsolete traditions.”
💠“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.”
Verdict
Catch 22 Quotes offer a unique perspective on the human condition, demonstrating the power of humor in the face of adversity and reminding us to always look for the silver lining in any situation. Whether humorous, thought-provoking, or profound, these quotes will surely stay with us for a long time to come.