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.
When I grow up I want to be a little boy.
The question is: what is a sane man to do in an insane society?
Peace on earth would mean the end of civilization as we know it.
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.
He was a self-made man who owed his lack of success to nobody.
[They] agreed that it was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything.
The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.
The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.
In the long run, failure was the only thing that worked predictably. All else was accidental.
The body stores the trauma of our lives in muscular rigidity, thereby keeping us stuck in the past. When we release the tension in the body and align ourselves with gravity, we take a new stand in life. This allows us to be at ease with ourselves and in harmony in our relationship to others and to our planet.
For war there is always enough. It's peace that's expensive.
There was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to.
Everyone in my book accuses everyone else of being crazy. Frankly, I think the whole society is nuts - and the question is: What does a sane man do in an insane society?
History was a trash bag of random coincidences torn open in a wind. Surely, Watt with his steam engine, Faraday with his electric motor, and Edison with his incandescent light bulb did not have it as their goal to contribute to a fuel shortage some day that would place their countries at the mercy of Arab oil.
Rise above principal and do what's right.
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.
The laws of nature are only as immutable as the minds which promote them. Ignorance of the law is 9/10ths of the law. Just because you aren't paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
Insanity is contagious.
Every writer I know has trouble writing.
From men motivated by moral certitude, history teaches, no lasting good ever comes.
Men went mad and were rewarded with medals.
Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them.
Success and failure are both difficult to endure. Along with success come drugs, divorce, fornication, bullying, travel, meditation, medication, depression, neurosis and suicide. With failure comes failure.
You have no respect for excessive authority or obsolete traditions. You're dangerous and depraved, and you ought to be taken outside and shot!
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