Death of a Salesman key quotes

"Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there's nobody to live in it"

"Bernard can get the best marks in school, y'understand, but when he gets out in the business world, y'understand, you are going to be five times ahead of him"

"Willy, the jails are full of fearless characters"

"Because i know he's a fake and he doesn't like anyone around who knows!"

"... he died the death of a saleman...hundereds of buyers were at the funeral"

"Willy, nobody's worth nothin' dead"

"The jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy"

"Coach'll probably congratulate you on your initiative!"

"'cause one thing, boys: I have friends. I can park my car in any street in New England, and the cops protect it like their own"

"Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. 'Willy Loman is here!' That's all they have to know, and I go right through"

"You know, the trouble is, Linda, people don't seem to take me"

"Cause I get so lonely - especially when business is bad and there's nobody to talk to"

"God Almighty, he'll be great yet. A star like that, magnificent, can never really fade away!"

"Once in my life, I would like to own something outright, before its broken!"

"All the cement, the lumber, the reconstruction I put in this house! There ain't a crack to be found in it anymore"

"You end up worth more dead than alive"

"But the funeral - Ben that funeral will be massive! ... that boy will be thunderstruck, Ben because he never realised - I am known!"

"Can you imagine that magnificence with twenty thousand dollars in his pocket?"

"I'll put you right through to the buyers"

"A man who can't handle tools is not a man"

"Why, boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich"

"Never fight fair with a stranger boy. You'll never get out of the jungle that way"

"Either he's your father and you pay him respect, or else you're not to come here"

"This is not time for false pride, Willy. You go to your sons and you tell them you're tired. You've got two great boys, haven't you?"

"We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house"

"Nobody dast blame this man... A salesman has got to dream, boy. It comes with the terrioty"

"Just because he printed University of Virginia on his sneakers doesn't mean they got to graduate him, Willy"

"But sometimes, Willy, its better for a man to just walk away"

"Don't make any promises. No promises of any kind"

"Please tell about Dad. I want my boys to hear. I want them to know the kind of stock they spring from"

"It's not what you say, it's how you say it - because personality always wins the day"

"I told you we should have bought a well-advertised machine"

"...a man can end with diamond here on the basis of being liked"

"They'll be calling him another Red Grange. Twenty-five thousand a year"

"A family business... that's the best. 'Cause whats the difference? Somebody steals? It's in the family. Know what I mean?"

"You mean to say Bernard wouldn't give you the answers?"

"How do we get back to all the great times? Used to be so full of light and comradeship"

"You can't eat the orange then throw the peel away... a man is not a piece of fruit!"

"I'm tired to death"

"I've always made a point of not wasting my life, and every time I come back here I know that all I've done is to waste my life"

"Gee, you are self-centred! Why so sad? You are the saddest, self-centredest soul I ever did see-saw"

"I'll put my money on Biff"

"Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!"

"A small man can be just as exhausted as a great man"