Joseph Heller Quotes

Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it.

I'm just going to do what I can do, not worry about taking hits. I'm not going to shy away from that... I'm going to try to protect myself and make sure I do my job.

No longer living in fear, my pistol close in hand, Convinced this is my year.

A girl expecting rescue never learns to save herself. Even with the means, she will find her courage wanting.

Run when you have to, fight when you must, rest when you can.

It's funny, honestly, by rights, with a lot of the stuff that's happened to me I should be running down the street with my hair on fire, but instead I want to shape things, and I want to shake things up. There's nothing wrong with being an agitator.

My rule is to save myself first.

Running away for fear of death, leaving one's dear ones, temples or music to take care of themselves, is irreligion; it is cowardice.

She was afraid, but she couldn't just sit around waiting for someone to save her. She had to try to save herself, try to figure it out.

Out of resistance comes strength.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise. Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear, I rise.

I give it up to women who have the power to keep their spirit alive under very difficult circumstances.

They will kill me but they will not kill my voice, because it will be the voice of all Afghan women. You can cut the flower, but you cannot stop the coming of spring.

No coward soul is mine.

A hero is someone who simply got too frightened to use his good sense and run away, then somehow lived through it all.

I wish I'd known from the beginning that I was born a strong woman. What a difference it would have made! I wish I'd known that I was born a courageous woman; I've spent so much of my life cowering. How many conversations would I not only have started but finished if I had known I possessed a warrior's heart? I wish I'd known that I'd be born to take on the world; I wouldn't have run from it for so long, but run to it with open arms.

The woman had looked into the abyss and then walked out across it.

My message to you all is hope, courage and confidence.

The essence of warriorship, or the essence of human bravery, is refusing to give up on anyone or anything. We can never say that we are simply falling to pieces or that anyone else is, and we can never say that about the world either. Within our lifetime there will be great problems in the world, but let us make sure than within our lifetime do disasters happen. We can prevent them. It is up to us.

How many more times are we going to cower under tables and chairs, whimpering like mindless dogs, thinking that someone else has the responsibility to save and protect us?

If a building is falling on you, you don't concern yourself with the horn of an approaching car. You deal with the most immediate peril first. That's survival.

Courage is one thing that no one can ever take away from you.

I've had my fair share of being dismissed. But I'm only about to turn 30. And when I finish running, I'm going to be a dangerous woman.

She fell, she hurt, she felt. She lived. And for all the tumble of her experiences, she still had hope. Maybe this next time would do the trick. Or maybe not. But unless you stepped into the game, you would never know.

I will be brave, thought Coraline. No, I am brave.