Salinger is a master of the memorable detail, the seemingly random gesture, the debris of mundane daily operations, the stuff that is left out of any analysis.
The Democratic leadership has expressed great concern for the incarceration rate in the commonwealth in the last few years. Now they want to fill the prisons up with people who would violate the merit law, a law that’s been proven to be ambiguous at best and impossible to understand at worst.
Nor all America can claim him now: Forevermore he is Mankind’s and God’s.
Even pearls are dark before the whiteness of his teeth.
You know when I was depressed I said I didn’t want to live? Well, I’ll tell you something – I didn’t want to die.
The effect of boredom on a large scale in history is underestimated. It is a main cause of revolutions.
Something larger is happening than just going to heaven.
There must be some great truth underlying the instinct for worship.
In the electronic age, books, words and reading are not likely to remain sufficiently authoritative and central to knowledge to justify literature.
The Christianity which is shared is the Christianity which is convincing.
Thinking in words slows you down and actually decreases comprehension in much the same way as walking a tightrope too slowly makes one lose one’s balance.
The Universe knows itself and expands itself through me.
He suffered from paralysis by analysis.
All the aftermath that so frequently follows in the wake of war still confront the nation, and we now, as ever before, must hold fast to the ancient landmarks and see to it that all of these plagues that threaten so mightily shall be rendered harmless.
I retire to make way for an abler man. In my four years as attorney general I have aged about ten years, but when I have get back to the practice of law, I hope to show those lawyers that I still have some vitality left.
One murder makes a villain, millions often a hero.
A mission could be defined as an image of a desired state that you want to get to. Once fully seen, it will inspire you to act, fuel your imagination and determine your behavior.
By the age of twenty, any young man should know whether or not he is to be a specialist and just where his tastes lie. By postponing the question we have set on immaturity a premium which controls most American personality to its deathbed.
Many years ago Rudyard Kipling gave an address at McGill University in Montreal. He said one striking thing which deserves to be remembered. Warning the students against an over-concern for money, or position, or glory, he said.
The price of power is responsibility for the public good.
Live constructively and live optimistically.