There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's 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. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle." That's some catch, that Catch-22, " he observed." It's the best there is, " Doc Daneeka agreed. Joseph Heller
About This Quote

Catch-22 is a satirical novel written by Joseph Heller, first published in November of 1961. The book received several awards including the United States National Book Award and the Edgar Allan Poe Award. Catch-22 is a story of a fictional American army squadron stationed on an airbase during World War II. The book's title follows the rules of logic that are used to determine if a person is capable of flying dangerous missions or not.

In order to qualify as being sane, you must first be insane. In other words, it only makes sense to be as insane as possible as long as you can still fly dangerous missions. The irony found in Catch-22 is that the definition of sanity has been flipped backwards.

In the book, the definition of sanity is insanity - which is exactly how it should be.

Source: Catch22

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