From men motivated by moral certitude, history teaches, no lasting good ever comes.

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.

I think that maybe inside any business, there is someone slowly going crazy

He was a self-made man who owed his lack of success to nobody.

I don't believe in miracles because it's been a long time since we've had any.

where are the snowdens of yesteryear?

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. But that was war. Just about all he could find in its favor was that it paid well and liberated children from the pernicious influence of their parents.