Hapworth 16, 1924 Quotes

“Postponed pain is among the most abominable kind to experience.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“While the consequences are often quite hellish, I am absolutely and perhaps permanently against ignoring books recommended from the heart by very nice people and strangers; it is too risky and inhuman; also the consequences are often painful in a fairly charming way.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“In a cruel manner of speaking, this young woman may well have lost her head before she was born; it is certainly not on her shoulders at this stage of the game.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“God bless ladies with costly, tasteful clothes and touching, dirty fingernails that champion gifted, foreign poets and decorate the library in beautiful, melancholy fashion! My God, this universe is nothing to snicker at!”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“a stunning glimpse of Buddy, at a later date by innumerable years, quite bereft of my dubious, loving company, writing about this very party on a very large, jet-black, very moving, gorgeous typewriter. He is smoking a cigarette, occasionally clasping his hands and placing them on the top of his head in a thoughtful, exhausted manner. His hair is gray; he is older than you are now, Les! The veins in his hands are slightly prominent in the glimpse, so I have not mentioned the matter to him at all, partially considering his youthful prejudice against veins showing in poor adults’ hands. So it goes. You would think this particular glimpse would pierce the casual witness’s heart to the quick, disabling him utterly, so that he could not bring himself to discuss the glimpse in the least with his beloved, broadminded family. This is not exactly the case; it mostly makes me take an exceedingly deep breath as a simple, brisk measure against getting dizzy. It is his room that pierces me more than anything else. It is all his youthful dreams realized to the full! It has one of those beautiful windows in the ceiling that he has always, to my absolute knowledge, fervently admired from a splendid reader’s distance! All round about him, in addition, are exquisite shelves to hold his books, equipment, tablets, sharp pencils, ebony, costly typewriter, and other stirring, personal effects. Oh, my God, he will be overjoyed when he sees that room, mark my words! It is one of the most smiling, comforting glimpses of my entire life and quite possibly with the least strings attached. In a reckless manner of speaking, I would far from object if that were practically the last glimpse of my life.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“Without keeping up a merciless guard, day and night, the variety of forward opinions in this world could easily destroy one’s sanity.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“I find it magnificent how beau-tiful, loose ends find each other in the world if one only waits with de-cent patience, resilience, and quite blind strength.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“Unfortunately, here as elsewhere on this touching planet, imitation is the watchword and prestige the highest ambition.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“It means that every man, woman, and child over the age, let us say, of twentyone or thirty, at the very outside, should never do anything extremely important or crucial in their life without first consulting a list of persons in the world, living or dead, whom he loves.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“One cannot even light a casual cigarette unless the artistic permission of the universe is freely given!”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“My God, think of the opportunities and thrusts that lie ahead when one knows without a shred of doubt how commonplace and normal one is at heart!”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“My opinions are all too frequently too damn harsh for words.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“Did anybody say anything about being flawless? Perfection is
an absolutely different word, magnificently left hanging for the human being’s kind benefit throughout the ages!”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“This is nobody’s fault, swiftly be assured; being human beings with personal opinions and brains, we are respondent to any shreds of beauty we can get; I myself am hopelessly respondent to it!”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“Think how practical, pleasant, and thrilling it would be if one could open one’s mouth, from time to time, and something other than sheer, forward, unreliable opinion came out!”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“As you damned well know, we never change much in our hearts.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“Jesus, life has its share of honorable thrills if one but keeps one’s eyes open!”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“This is of unspeakable importance. Please send any books on the structure of the human heart that I have not read”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“Fortunately, I find that if a situation is funny or risible enough, I tend to bleed less profusely.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“It is too ironical to bear, but I give you my word that valorous people require far more protec-tion than meets the eye.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“I am not constructed for continued absences; I have never claimed to be constructed for them.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“Without the mind, sensuality quite has no organs to call her own!”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“While I have no confidence whatsoever in go-betweens, personal opinion, and unassailable, respectable facts, I am also, in my heart, exceedingly fond of them all; I am hopelessly touched to the quick at the bravery of every magnificent human being accepting this charming, flimsy information every heartrending moment of his life! My God, human beings are brave creatures! Every last, touching coward on the face of the earth is unspeakably brave!”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“Piled on top of all this good fortune, what else does one find? A capacity to make many wonderful friends in small numbers whom we will love passionately and guard from uninstructive harm until our lives are finished and who, in turn, will love us, too, and never let us down without very great regret, which is a lot better, more guerdoning, more humorous than being let down without any regret at all.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“Vulgarly speaking, the whole possibility of getting charming, personal commands from God, quite shapeless or adorned with an impressive, charming beard, stinks to high heaven of sheer favoritism! Let God raise one human being up over another, lavishing hand- some favors upon him, and the hour has struck to leave His charming service forever, and quite good riddance! This sounds very harsh, but I am an emotional youth, frankly mortal, with innumerable experiences under my belt of mortal favoritism; I cannot stand the sight of it; let God favor us all with charming, personal commands or none of us! If You have the stomach to read this letter, dear God, be assured that I am meaning what I say! Do not sprinkle any dubious sugar on my destiny! Do not favor me with charming, personal commands and magnificent short cuts! Do not ask me to join any elite organization of mortals that is not widely open to all and sundry! Recall quite fervently that I have felt equipped to love Your astonishing, noble Son, Jesus Christ, on the acceptable basis that you did not play favorites with Him or give Him carte blanche throughout his appearance!”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“one cannot even light a casual cigarette unless the artistic permission of the universe is freely given! Permis- sion is too broad, but somebody’s head must freely nod before the cigarette can be touched to the flame of the match. This is also too broad, I regret with my entire body to say. I am convinced God will kindly wear a human head, quite capable of nodding, for the benefit of some admirer who enjoys picturing Him that way, but I personally am not partial to His wearing a human head and would perhaps turn on my heel and walk away if He put one on for my dubious benefit. This is an exaggeration, to be sure; I would be powerless to walk away from Him, of all people, even if my life depended on it.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“My God, think of the opportunities and thrusts that lie ahead when one knows without a shred of doubt how commonplace and normal one is at heart! With just a little steadfast devotion to un- common beauty and passing rectitudes of the heart, combined with our dead certainty that we are as normal and human as anybody else, and knowing it is not just a question of sticking out our tongues, like other boys, during the first, beautiful snowfall of the year, who can prevent us from doing a little good in this appearance?”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“... I am sick to death of the wide gap of embarrassing differences, among other things, between my writing and speaking voices! It is rotten and worrisome to have two voices.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“This is a matter of quite a little humorous despair to me, though not so humorous. It is entirely disgusting to be forever achieving little actions of the heart or body and then taking recourse to reaction. I am utterly convinced that if A's hat blows off while he is sauntering down the street, it is the charming duty of B to pick it up and hand it to A without examining A's face or combing it out of gratitude! My God, let me achieve missing my beloved family without yearning that they miss me in return! It requires a less wishy-washy character than the one available to me.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924

“Also frankly, while my penmanship will im- prove a little as I grow older, looking less and less like the expression of a demented person, it is mostly beyond redemption.My personal instability and too much emotion will ever be plainly marked in every stroke of the pen, quite unfortunately.”
― J.D. Salinger, Hapworth 16, 1924