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mankind is resilient: the atrocities that horrified us a week ago become acceptable tomorrow.

Joseph Heller

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Joseph Heller
Age: 76 †
Born: 1923
Born: May 1
Died: 1999
Died: December 10
Autobiographer
Journalist
Novelist
Playwright
Prosaist
Screenwriter
Writer
New York City
New York
Tomorrow
Mankind
Week
Become
Horrified
Resilient
Atrocities
Acceptable

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Under Colonel Korn's rule, the only people permitted to ask questions were those who never did.
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Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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I don't understand the process of imagination-though I know that I am very much at its mercy.
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It made him proud that 29 months in the service had not blunted his genius for ineptitude.
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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.
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I've come to look upon death the same way I look upon root-canal work. Everyone else seems to get through it all right, so it couldn't be too difficult for me.
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In short, Clevinger was one of those people with lots of intelligence and no brains, and everyone knew it except those who soon found it out.
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The laws of nature are only as immutable as the minds which promote them. Ignorance of the law is 9/10ths of the law. Just because you aren't paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
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Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it's to seem long. But in that event, who wants one?
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The country was in peril he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.
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Rise above principal and do what's right.
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If Richard Nixon was second-rate, what in the world is third-rate?
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You're an intelligent person of great moral character who has taken a very courageous stand. I'm an intelligent person with no moral character at all, so I'm in an ideal position to appreciate it.
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