The catcher in the rye was published in 1951 and it is written by J. D. Salinger. It is one of the best novels which teaches human behavior. The novel shows about a 16 years old boy who becomes confused and delusional about things after getting expelled from school. You can learn many things from this novel which will be helpful to understand human behavior and to control your life situations.
The novel teaches about,
- You are not only in frustration: every other person in today’s life is frustrated some from work some from home and others from many other things. So it is ok sometimes to be frustrated and to feel low, it depends upon us of how we cope that frustration positively or negatively.
- Channel your frustration in something productive: we should channel our energy into something productive when we are frustrated. It leads us to the path of success and we get something back in return, rather than destroying our peace of mind.
- Beauty is worth holding onto as it is rare: beauty means not outer look but inner beauty which is good nature, helping another person, empathy, a person with these qualities is worth holding on.
These were some of the life learning lessons which this novel teaches us. Apart from these many quotes of these novel teaches us about life. Here we bring Catcher In The Rye Quotes which will teach you about human behavior and life. Do enjoy this Catcher In The Rye Quotes and transform yourself into a better person.
Catcher In The Rye Quotes
“I can’t explain what I mean. And even if I could, I’m not sure I’d feel like it.”
“I think that one of these days…you’re going to have to find out where you want to go. And then you’ve got to start going there. But immediately. You can’t afford to lose a minute. Not you.”
″‘Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.‘”
“I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot.”
“Then I started reading this timetable I had in my pocket. Just to stop lying. Once I get started, I can go on for hours if I feel like it. No kidding. Hours.”
“It’s funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want them to.”
“Lots of times you don’t know what interests you most till you start talking.”
“I’m just going through a phase right now. Everybody goes through phases and all, don’t they?”
“I am 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.”
“I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It’s nice.”
“The thing is, it’s really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs.”
“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.”
“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 can be quite sarcastic when I’m in the mood.”
“…Someday, if 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.”
“People are always ruining things for you.”
“All morons hate it when you call them a moron.”
“People never notice anything.”
“I hate actors. They never act like people. They just think they do.”
“People always clap for the wrong reasons.”
“Almost every time someone gives me a present, it ends up making me sad.”
“It’s partly true, too, but it isn’t all true. People always think something’s all true.”
“I don’t give a damn, except that I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am—I really do—but people never notice it.”
“Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.”
“If you sat around there long enough and heard all the phonies applauding and all, you got to hate everybody in the world, I swear you did.”
“You can’t stop a teacher when they want to do something. They just do it.”
“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.”
“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.”
“My brother Allie had this left-handed fielder’s mitt. He was left handed. The thing that was descriptive about it though, was that he had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere. In green ink. He wrote them on it so that he’d have something to read when he was in the field and nobody was up to bat. He’s dead now.”
“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.
“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.”
“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.”
“Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behaviour. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if 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.”
“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.”
“Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right – I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game.”
“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, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole… Nobody’d be different… The only thing that would be different would be you.”
“Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
“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. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know.” – The Catcher in the Rye
I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It’s nice.” Rye
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“The goddam movies. They can ruin you. I’m not kidding.”
“I think that one of these days… you’re going to have to find out where you want to go. And then you’ve got to start going there. But immediately. You can’t afford to lose a minute. Not you.”
“This fall I think you’re riding for—it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn’t supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started.”
“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. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if 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.”
“I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.”
“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 drive you crazy. They really can.”
“Mothers are all slightly insane.”
“Every time you mention some guy that’s strictly a bastard—very mean, or very conceited and all—and when you mention it to the girl, she’ll tell you he has an inferiority complex. Maybe he has, but that still doesn’t keep him from being a bastard, in my opinion.”
“Make sure you marry someone who laughs at the same things you do.”
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