Looking for the best and inspirational J. D. Salinger quotes?
JD Salinger was a well-known American writer who has written countless books and short stories, some of which are about teenagers struggling with their identity. He is best known for writing the story for The Catcher in the Rye, published in more than 30 languages.
The Catcher in the Rye has been translated into many languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese Korean Norwegian Portuguese Romanian Russian Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian.
He Had a rough childhood due to his mother’s battle with alcoholism and mental illness. However, he became a renowned author that created a lot of new literary devices that were still being used today and became one of the most influential writers since World War II. On January 1st, 1919, he was born and died on January 27th, 2010, at age 91, of natural causes.
Here are his most famous quotes that will improve your mood and help you think more outside the box.
43 Most Famous J. D. Salinger Quotes
“Know your true measurements and dress your mind accordingly”
“Make sure you marry someone who laughs at the same things you do.”
“Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
“I have scars on my hands from touching certain people… Certain heads, certain colors and textures of human hair leave permanent marks on me.”
“You can’t stop a teacher when they want to do something. They just do it.”
“I don’t exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.”
“When you’re not looking, somebody’ll sneak up and write “Fuck you” right under your nose.”
“I can’t explain what I mean. And even if I could, I’m not sure I’d feel like it.”
“A confessional passage has probably never been written that didn’t stink a little bit of the writer’s pride in having given up his pride.”
“People are always ruining things for you.”
“I’m sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.”
“I mean how do you know what you’re going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don’t. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it’s a stupid question.”
“If you do something too good, then, after a while, if you don’t watch it, you start showing off. And then you’re not as good any more.”
“I’m a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.”
“Boy, when you’re dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead?”
“I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It’s nice.”
“If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she’s late?”
“I have scars on my hands from touching certain people.”
“If you do something too good, then, after a while, if you don’t watch it, you start showing off. And then you’re not as good any more.”
“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.”
“One day a long time from now you’ll cease to care anymore whom you please or what anybody has to say about you. That’s when you’ll finally produce the work you’re capable of.”
“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.”
“I’m just sick of ego, ego, ego. My own and everybody else’s. I’m sick of everybody that wants to get somewhere, do something distinguished and all, be somebody interesting. It’s disgusting.”
“Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad.”
“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.”
“People are mostly hot to have a discussion when you’re not.”
“You can’t exist in this world with such strong likes and dislikes.”
“Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.”
“I don’t care if it’s a sad good-bye or a bad good-bye, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse.”
“Its really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs.”
“Always, always, always referring every goddam thing that happens right back to our lousy little egos.”
“The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.”
“Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rule.” “Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it.”
“Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.”
“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.”
“There are still a few men who love desperately.”
“I don’t know what good it is to know so much and be smart as whips and all if it doesn’t make you happy.”
“An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.”
“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.”
“Poets are always taking the weather so personally. They’re always sticking their emotions in things that have no emotions.”
“Nobody who’s really using his ego, his real ego, has any time for any goddam hobbies”
“People never notice anything.”
