"Love is potent stuff, isn't it?"

Joseph Heller Literature See all quotes by Joseph Heller →

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“God does have this self-serving habit of putting all blame for His own mistakes on other people, doesn't He? He picks someone arbitrarily, unbidden, right out of the blue so to speak, and levies upon them tasks of monumental difficulty for which we don't always measure up in every particular, then charges US for HIS error in selecting imperfectly. He tends to forget that we are no more infallible than He is.”

“When one is infatuated, faults are endearing that in others would be heinous.”

“I imagine that God Himself frequently wants to feel like a king. Why else would He create the world?”

“The promises of maniacs, like those of women, are not safely relied upon.”

“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.”

“Vanity. What's wrong with vanity? It doesn't satisfy.”

Resonant Thoughts

"America is dealing death, not only to people of other lands, but to its own people. So say the most thoughtful and passionate of our youth, from California to Connecticut."

— Charles A. Reich

Literature1928–2019

#love

"This is the writing of Nagiko Kiyohara no Motosuke Sei Shonagon, and I know you to have blackmailed, violated and humiliated my father. I suspect you also of ruining my husband. You have now committed…"

— Peter Greenaway

Art1942

#love

"What it talks about is stuff that I've gone through, like, in the past year, which is, you know, a lot, and some of it's good, and some of it's bad, and a lot of it's, like, a big learning experience.…"

— Hilary Duff

Music1987

#knowledge

"The record I would like to talk about today is Grace by Jeff Buckley. There are only a handful of albums that I've ever listened to that have captured me in the way that this album was able to capture…"

— Jeff Buckley

Music1966–1997

#time