Catcher in the Rye Quotes

I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.

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.

What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of good-by. I mean I’ve left schools and places I didn’t even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don’t care if it’s a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse.

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.

The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish… Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.

I’m sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.

People always clap for the wrong things.

I’m always saying ‘Glad to’ve met you’ to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.

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.

Catcher in the Rye Quotes part 2

The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.

It’s funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want them to.

You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phony stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they’re mean bastards at heart.

I don’t care if it’s a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it.

It’s not too bad when the sun’s out, but the sun only comes out when it feels like coming out.

I have a feeling that you’re riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible fall.

I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage.

Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior.

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.

Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad.

I can be quite sarcastic when I’m in the mood.

If you want to know the truth, I can’t even stand it when they get up from the table after eating.

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.

Sex is something I just don’t understand. I swear to God I don’t.

I’m not too sure what I think about it. I almost think I rather like it, but not quite. It’s sort of like it isn’t even real. It’s like it’s sort of amputated or something. A body without a head or something.

Mothers are all slightly insane.

You always do everything you’re not supposed to do.

I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It’s awful.

I’m crazy. I swear to God I am.

It’s funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want them to.

I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot.

If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.

If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she’s late? Nobody.

I’m a pacifist, if you want to know the truth.

That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they’re not much to look at, or even if they’re sort of stupid, you fall in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.

That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they’re not much to look at, or even if they’re sort of stupid, you fall in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.

I mean she was all right if you minded her swearing all the time.

You can’t even find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any.

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.

Then there was this time when I asked her to do something for me because I was too young or something, and she said I was too old.

The worst thing that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly.

It’s full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddamn Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddamn cliques.

Take most people, they’re crazy about cars. They worry if they get a little scratch on them, and they’re always talking about how many miles they get to a gallon, and if they get a brand-new car already they start thinking about trading it in for one that’s even newer.

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.

Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.

I’m sort of glad they’ve got the atomic bomb invented. If there’s ever another war, I’m going to sit right the hell on top of it. I’ll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.