The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.
J. D. SALINGERIf you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.
More J. D. Salinger Quotes
-
-
Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.
J. D. SALINGER -
Don’t hate me because I can’t remember some person immediately. Especially when they look like everybody else, and talk and dress and act like everybody else.
J. D. SALINGER -
It’s not too bad when the sun’s out, but the sun only comes out when it feels like coming out.
J. D. SALINGER -
That’s the whole trouble. You can’t ever find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any.
J. D. SALINGER -
She was not one for emptying her face of expression.
J. D. SALINGER -
I’m up to my ears in unwritten words.
J. D. SALINGER -
I hate actors. They never act like people. They just think they do.
J. D. SALINGER -
You never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.
J. D. SALINGER -
I’m one of the little foxes that spoil the grapes.
J. D. SALINGER -
I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.
J. D. SALINGER -
Most stuff that is genuine is better left unsaid.
J. D. SALINGER -
You don’t have to think too hard when you talk to teachers.
J. D. SALINGER -
Sometimes you get tired of riding in taxicabs the same way you get tired riding in elevators. All of a sudden, you have to walk, no matter how far or how high up.
J. D. SALINGER -
Who in the Bible besides Jesus knew–knew–that we’re carrying the Kingdom of Heaven around with us, inside, where we’re all too goddam stupid and sentimental and unimaginative to look?
J. D. SALINGER -
How long should a man’s legs be? Long enough to touch the ground.
J. D. SALINGER -
I could happily lie down and die sometimes.
J. D. SALINGER -
I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.
J. D. SALINGER -
I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot.
J. D. SALINGER -
All morons hate it when you call them a moron.
J. D. SALINGER -
Sentimentality is loving something more than God does.
J. D. SALINGER -
You don’t know how to talk to people you don’t like. Don’t love, really. You can’t live in the world with such strong likes and dislikes.
J. D. SALINGER -
I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It’s awful. If I’m on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I’m going, I’m liable to say I’m going to the opera. It’s terrible.
J. D. SALINGER -
Know your true measurements and dress your mind accordingly.
J. D. SALINGER -
It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road.
J. D. SALINGER -
Nobody who’s really using his ego, his real ego, has any time for any goddam hobbies.
J. D. SALINGER -
If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she’s late? Nobody.
J. D. SALINGER