J.D. Salinger Quotes That Will Inspire You to Live Your Best Life

1. All these angels start coming out of the boxes and everywhere, guys carrying crucifixes and stuff all over the place, and the whole bunch of them - thousands of them - singing Come All Ye Faithful like mad. Big deal. It’s supposed to be religious as hell, I know, and very pretty and all, but I can’t see anything religious or pretty, for God’s sake, about a bunch of actors carrying crucifixes all over the stage. When they all finished and started going out the boxes again, you could tell they could hardly wait to get a cigarette of something. I saw it with old Sally Hayes the year before, and she kept saying how beautiful it was, the costumes and all. I said old jesus probably would’ve puked if he could see it. The Catcher in the Rye

2. And I can't be running back and fourth forever between grief and high delight. Franny and Zooey

3. 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. Franny and Zooey

4. I don’t think it would have all got me quite so down if just once in a while—just once in a while—there was at least some polite little perfunctory implication that knowledge should lead to wisdom, and that if it doesn't, it's just a disgusting waste of time! But there never is! You never even hear any hints dropped on a campus that wisdom is supposed to be the goal of knowledge. You hardly ever even hear the word 'wisdom' mentioned! Franny and Zooey

5. 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. The Catcher in the Rye

6. I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

7. I'm not trying to tell you," he said "that only educated men are able to contribute something valuable to the world. It's not so.But I do say that educated and scholarly men, if they're brilliant and creative to begin with--which, unfortunately, is rarely the case--tend to leave infinitely more valuable records behind them than men do who are MEREly brilliant and creative. The Catcher in the Rye

8. 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. Franny and Zooey

9. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the "Fuck you" signs in the world. It's impossible. The Catcher in the Rye

10. It's partly true, too, but it isn't all true. People always think something's all true. The Catcher in the Rye

11. Oh, God, if I'm anything by a clinical name, I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I think people are plotting to make me happy. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

12. She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.

13. The thing is, it's really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs--if yours are really good ones and theirs aren't. You think if they're intelligent and all, the other person, and have a good sense of humor, that they don't give a damn whose suitcases are better, but they do. They really do. The Catcher in the Rye

14. when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose. The Catcher in the Rye

15. John Keats / John Keats / John / Please put your scarf on. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

16. You asked me how to get out of the finite dimensions when I feel like it. I certainly don't use logic when I do it. Logic's the first thing you have to get rid of. Nine Stories