Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923 – December 12, 1999) was an American author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays. His best-known work is the 1961 novel Catch-22. Hope, our collection of Joseph Heller Quotes will give you the inspiration to seek truth.
Insanity is contagious.
– Joseph Heller
Joseph Heller Quotes
1. “Every writer I know has trouble writing.” – Joseph Heller
2. “For war there is always enough. It’s peace that’s expensive.” – Joseph Heller
3. “Rise above principal and do what’s right.” – Joseph Heller
4. “Be glad you’re even alive.’ Be furious you’re going to die.” – Joseph Heller
5. “Destiny is a good thing to accept when it’s going your way. When it isn’t, don’t call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery, or simple bad luck.” – Joseph Heller
6. “Peace on earth would mean the end of civilization as we know it.” – Joseph Heller
7. “There was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to.” – Joseph Heller
8. “Mankind is resilient: the atrocities that horrified us a week ago become acceptable tomorrow.” – Joseph Heller
9. “There is no disappointment so numbing…as someone no better than you achieving more.” – Joseph Heller
10. “Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.” – Joseph Heller
11. “Anything worth dying for … is certainly worth living for.” – Joseph Heller
12. “In the long run, failure was the only thing that worked predictably. All else was accidental.” – Joseph Heller
13. “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.” – Joseph Heller
14. “The question is: what is a sane man to do in an insane society?” – Joseph Heller
15. “The Lord gave us farmers two strong hands so we could grab as much as we could with both of them.” – Joseph Heller
16. “From men motivated by moral certitude, history teaches, no lasting good ever comes.” – Joseph Heller
17. “Remember that everyone deserves some fun during working hours.” – Joseph Heller
18. “The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on.” – Joseph Heller
19. “Erogenous zones are either everywhere or nowhere.” – Joseph Heller
20. “It doesn’t make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who’s dead.” – Joseph Heller
21. “Live forever or die in the attempt.” – Joseph Heller
22. “I want to keep my dreams, even bad ones, because without them, I might have nothing all night long.” – Joseph Heller
23. “It was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything.” – Joseph Heller
24. “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
25. “I can’t start writing until I have a closing line.” – Joseph Heller
26. “There is wisdom in madness and strong probability of truth in all accusations, for people are complete and everybody is capable of everything.” – Joseph Heller
27. “The truth is whatever people will believe is the truth. Don’t you know history?” – Joseph Heller
28. “The wise man dies no better or more wisely than the fool. In what way, then, is the wise man wise?” – Joseph Heller
29. “All is vanity, you know, ALL in the long run is but vanity and vexation of spirit.” – Joseph Heller
30. “It’s a wise person, I guess, who knows he’s dumb, and an honest person who knows he’s a liar. And it’s a dumb person, I guess, who’s convinced he’s wise.” – Joseph Heller
31. “The problem with the loneliness I suffer is that the company of others has never been a cure for it.” – Joseph Heller
32. “I’m not even sure we really had that much need for God as much as we did seem to have a need to believe in Him.” – Joseph Heller
33. “When I grow up I want to be a little boy.” – Joseph Heller
34. “Everybody is as unstable as water.” – Joseph Heller
35. “The spirit gone, man is garbage.” – Joseph Heller
36. “First impressions die slowly, bad impressions take even longer.” – Joseph Heller
37. “When one is infatuated, faults are endearing that in others would be heinous.” – Joseph Heller
38. “The end result of experiencing terror and injury is not an increase in compassion, but a tendency toward callousness.” – Joseph Heller
39. “God had no need for Ecclesiastes to acquaint Him with vanity.” – Joseph Heller
40. “The years are too short, the days are too long.” – Joseph Heller
