Book of Quotes

The Outsiders

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton 

- “I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me.” 

 - “Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.” 

- “It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset.” 

- “Nothing Stay Forever"

"Nature’s first green is gold,

"Her hardest hue to hold.

"Her early leaf’s a flower;

"But only so an hour.

"Then leaf subsides to leaf.

"So Eden sank to grief,

"So dawn goes down today.

"Nothing gold can stay.

-- Robert Frost” 

- “You get tough like me and you don't get hurt. You look out for yourself and nothin' can touch you...” 

- “Sixteen years on the streets and you can learn a lot. But all the wrong things, not the things you want to learn. Sixteen years on the streets and you see a lot. But all the wrong sights, not the things you want to see.” 

- “They grew up on the outside of society. They weren't looking for a fight. They were looking to belong.” 

- “Can you see the sunset real good on the West side? You can see it on the East side too.” 

- “It's okay. We aren't in the same class. Just don't forget that some of us watch the sunset too.” 

- “Things are rough all over.” 

- “I am a greaser. I am a JD and a hood. I blacken the name of our fair city. I beat up people. I rob gas stations. I am a menace to society. Man do I have fun!” 

- “I've been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy that wrote it, he meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep that way, it's a good way to be.” 

- “Get smart and nothing can touch you.” 

- “Dally was so real he scared me.” 

- “Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.” 

- “Ponyboy, listen, don't get tough. You're not like the rest of us and don't try to be..."

What was the matter with Two-Bit? I knew as well as he did that if you got tough you didn't get hurt. Get smart and nothing can touch you...

"What in the world are you doing?" Two-Bit's voice broke into my thoughts.

I looked up at him. "Picking up the glass."

He stared at me for a second, then grinned. "You little sonofagun," he said in a relieved voice. I didn't know what he was talking about, so I just went on picking up the glass from the bottle end and put it in a trash can. I didn't want anyone to get a flat tire.” 

- “Nothing sparkly can stay.” 

- “He died violent and young and desperate, just like we all knew he'd die someday.”

- “Asleep, he looked a lot younger than going-on-seventeen, but I had noticed that Johnny looked younger when he was asleep too, so I figured everyone did. Maybe people are younger when they are asleep.”