I don't think the 'what' distinguishes a good novel from a bad one but rather the 'how.'

Insanity is contagious.

I couldn't see much point in tying myself down to a middle-aged woman with four children, even though the woman was my wife and the children were my own.

That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed. It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

To Yossarian, the idea of pennants as prizes was absurd. No money went with them, no class privileges. Like Olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else.

Death to all modifiers, he declared one day, and out of every letter that passed through his hands went every adverb and every adjective.

When you consider the opportunity and power He had to really do a job, and then look at the stupid, ugly little mess He made of it instead, His sheer incompetence is almost staggering.