"Frankly, I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private industry."

"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."

"I want to keep my dreams, even bad ones, because without them, I might have nothing all night long."

"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. 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."

"Everything that looks to the future elevates human nature."

"Humanism: an exaltation of freedom, but one limited by our need to exercise it as an integral part of nature and society."

"When you're thirsty and it seems that you could drink the entire ocean that's faith when you start to drink and finish only a glass or two that's science."

"Human beings are accustomed to think of intellect as the power of having and controlling ideas and of ability to learn as synonymous with ability to have ideas. But learning by having ideas is really one of the rare and isolated events in nature."