Catch-22 Greed Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #10

[Milo:] "But how will I get the government to do it?"

"Bribe it," Yossarian said.

"Bribe it!" Milo was outraged and almost lost his balance and broke his neck again. "Shame on you!" he scolded severely, breathing virtuous fire down and upward into his rusty mustache through his billowing nostrils and prim lips. "Bribery is against the law, and you know it. But it's not against the law to make a profit, is it? So it can't be against the law for me to bribe someone in order to make a fair profit, can it? No, of course not!" (24.128-130)

Milo's ethics do not allow him to bribe the government because it's against the law, and Milo believes that his loyalties lie with the American government. However, his loyalty to the syndicate is stronger and he reasons that making a profit is not illegal, so any means of making a profit could not possibly be against the law of the American government. His reasoning shows that he's maintaining his own integrity by bribing the government to buy his unwanted Egyptian cotton.