It galled him that anybody should think him inferior.

Morale was deteriorating and it was all Yossarian's fault. The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.

And everything that he saw before him He despised or hated.

When politics degrades itself to political adventurism the nation would be on the calamitous road to inevitable disaster and ruination.

The nation looked upon him as a deserter, and he shrunk into insignificancy and an earldom.

The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in the incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part, wish to stand, shorn, of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so called insignificance, are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings.

The policy of reducing Germany to servitude for a generation, of degrading the lives of millions of human beings, and of depriving a whole nation of happiness should be abhorrent and detestable, — abhorrent and detestable, even if it were possible, even if it enriched ourselves, even if it did not sow the decay of the whole civilized life of Europe.

Curse on his virtues! they've undone his country.

It was as if he had come to mistrust words somehow. Words, and the sentiments words carried.

We feel we have been used in the worst fashion by the administration of this country. ... And we cannot consider ourselves America's best men when we are ashamed of and hated what we were called on to do in Southeast Asia.

We may say, with truth, that the people are, in Poland, in a state of extreme humiliation. We must, nevertheless, consider them as the principal support of the nation; and I am persuaded, that the little value we set on them might have very dangerous consequences.

Imperialism degrades both oppressor and oppressed.

Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense?

My country is a disgrace to me, but you are a disgrace to your country.