What is a country? A country is a piece of land surrounded on all
sides by boundaries, usually unnatural. Englishmen are dying for
England, Americans are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany,
Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries
fighting in this war. Surely so many countries can't all be worth dying
for.
―
Catch-22
What a lousy earth! He wondered how many people were destitute
that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were
shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many
children were bullied, abused, or abandoned. How many families hungered
for food they could not afford to buy? How many hearts were broken? How
many suicides would take place that same night, how many people would go
insane? How many cockroaches and landlords would triumph? How many
winners were losers, successes failures, and rich men poor men? How many
wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How
many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how
many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had
sold their souls to bodyguards, how many had never had souls? How many
straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many best families
were worst families and how many good people were bad people? When you
added them all up and then subtracted, you might be left with only the
children, and perhaps with Albert Einstein and an old violinist or
sculptor somewhere.
― Catch-22
― Catch-22
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