Quotes about humor

A fanatic is a nut who has something to believe in.

SAM: Isn’t this a circus...of sorts?

MENDEL: No. It’s theater. There is a difference.

SAM: Really? What is it?

MENDEL: A circus employs only clowns.

SAM: So does the theater.

MARIA: The people can say anything they please—

MENDEL: Right. Under one condition: that they do not say it.

BERISH: I resigned from membership in God—I resigned from God. Let Him look for another innkeeper, let Him find another people, let Him push around another Jew—I’m through with Him!

MARIA: Don’t you worry, Master. You say things, but God isn’t angry How could He be? He isn’t even listening.

I felt like a moth in a chandelier — all at once there were lots of pretty choices, but I wasn't quite sure where to fly.

You're going to die a horrible death, remember. It's all good training, and you'll enjoy it more if you keep the facts in mind.

Take your dying with some seriousness, however. Laughing on the way to your execution is not generally understood by less advanced lifeforms, and they'll call you crazy.

"There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from."…

"You're quoting Snoopy the dog, I believe?"

"I'll quote the truth wherever I find it thank you."

People named John and Mary never divorce. For better or for worse, in madness and in saneness, they seem bound together for eternity by their rudimentary nomenclature. They may loathe and despise one another, quarrel, weep, and commit mayhem, but they are not free to divorce. Tom, Dick, and Harry can go to Reno on a whim, but nothing short of death can separate John and Mary.

We praise Him, we bless Him, we adore Him, we glorify Him, and we wonder who is that baritone across the aisle and that pretty woman on our right who smells of apple blossoms. Our bowels stir and our cod itches and we amend our prayers for the spiritual life with the hope that it will not be too spiritual.

A man's reach must exceed his grasp or what's a metaphor? (p.7)

Art is anything you can get away with.

“From now on I'm thinking only of me.” Major Danby replied indulgently with a superior smile: “But, Yossarian, suppose everyone felt that way?”

“Then,” said Yossarian, “I'd certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way, wouldn't I?”