Quote

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. Salinger

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

J. D. Salinger
Age: 91 †
Born: 1919
Born: January 1
Died: 2010
Died: January 27
Author
Novelist
Writer
New York City
New York
Jerome David Salinger
Jerome Salinger
Men
Mature
Aging
Mark
Cause
Nobly
Wants
Immaturity
Causes
Humbly
Dies
Immature
Live
Maturity

More quotes by J. D. Salinger

Image
His eldest sister (who modestly prefers to be identified here as a Tuckahoe homemaker) has asked me to describe him as looking like 'the blue-eyed Jewish-Irish Mohican scout who died in your arms at the roulette table at Monte Carlo.
J. D. Salinger
Image
She was wearing a canary-yellow two-piece bathing suit, one piece of which she would not actually be needing for another nine or ten years.
J. D. Salinger
Image
I know. I'm very hard to talk to. I realize that.
J. D. Salinger
Image
She wrote to him fairly regularly, from a paradise of triple exclamation points and inaccurate observations.
J. D. Salinger
Image
Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.
J. D. Salinger
Image
I know he's dead! Don't you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can't I? Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God's sake--especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that're alive and all.
J. D. Salinger
Image
Let's just try to have a marvelous time this weekend. I mean not try to analyze everything to death for once, if possible. Especially me. I love you.
J. D. Salinger
Image
I like to be somewhere at least where you can see a few girls around once in a while, even if they're only scratching their arms or blowing their noses or even just giggling or something.
J. D. Salinger
Image
She worries over the way her love for me comes and goes, appears and disappears. She doubts its reality simply because it isn't as steadily pleasurable as a kitten. God knows it is sad. The human voice conspires to desecrate everything on earth.
J. D. Salinger
Image
The worst thing that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly.
J. D. Salinger
Image
I'm not afraid to compete. It's just the opposite. Don't you see that? I'm afraid I will compete - that's what scares me.
J. D. Salinger
Image
Sometimes I see me dead in the rain.
J. D. Salinger
Image
Don't tell people what you are thinking, or you will miss them terribly when you are away.
J. D. Salinger
Image
Life is a gift horse in my opinion.
J. D. Salinger
Image
I don't suppose a writing man ever really gets rid of his old crocus-yellow neckties. Sooner or later, I think, they show up in his prose, and there isn't a hell of a lot he can do about it.
J. D. Salinger
Image
For joy, apparently, it was all Franny could do to hold the phone, even with both hands.
J. D. Salinger
Image
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
Image
What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would've done it, too, if I'd been sure somebody'd cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn't want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory.
J. D. Salinger
Image
I think if you don't really like a girl, you shouldn't horse around with her at all, and if you do like her, then you're supposed to like her face, and if you like her face, you ought to be careful about doing crumby stuff to it, like squirting water all over it. It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun sometimes.
J. D. Salinger
Image
I live alone (but catless, I'd like everybody to know).
J. D. Salinger