Death of a Salesman Quotes

Willy is giving advice to his boys; this advice is counter to what true success requires.

"Be liked and you'll never want."

Charley is eulogizing Willy. Charley appreciates the difficulty of working in sales.

"He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a shoeshine and a smile."

Willy is speaking about his brother, Ben. Walking into the jungle and coming out rich is not particulalrly helpful advice.

"There was the only man I ever met who knew the answers."

Linda is trying to explain to Biff how Willy becomes erratic when Biff comes to visit.

"I think it's just that maybe he can't bring himself to--open up to you."

Willy is yelling at Howard just before Howard fires Willy. Willy's been left as a useless orange peel.

"You mustn't tell me you've got people to see--I put thirty-four years into this firm..."

Adult Bernard is speaking to Willy about his and Biff's youth. Bernard wonders what happened in Boston.

"I've often thought how strange it was that I knew he'd given up his life."

Linda is imploring her sons that they must pay attention to their father.

"He's just a big stupid man to you, but I tell there's more good in him than in many other people."

Willy is talking to Linda, and in a rare moment absent of bluster, braggodacio, and dishonesty, Willy reveals a sincere worry. Right after this line, the audience sees that Willy had an affair while on the road.

"I get the feeling that I'll never sell anything again, that I won't make a living for you, or a business, a business for the boys."

Willy sees Charley for the last time, and gets a final "paycheck" from a man he refused to work for.

"If you can manage it--I need a hundred and ten dollars."

Willy tries to blame Biff's failure on a high school math class to adult Bernard. Bernard suspects that it was something different.

"He flunked the subject and laid down and died like a hammer hit him!"

Biff is speaking at his father's funeral. These combined with Biff's final lines bring catharsis to this tragedy.

"You know something, Charley there's more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made."

Happy is speaking at Willy's funeral. He's bound to repeat his father's life.

"I'm gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain."

Willy is imploring adult Bernard to explain Biff's failure to him. Willy's denial pushes him to believe that it's all on Biff.

"His life ended after that Ebbets Field game."

Willy is speaking to Linda and is filled with hope after Biff first tells him his Bill Oliver plan.

"Certain men just don't get started until later in life."

Adult Biff is explaining his problem with working in the city to Happy.

"To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation, when all you really desire is to be outdoors, with your shirt off."

Adult Happy is explaining to Biff how he sleeps with the fiancés of his bosses. Considering their childhoods, there is no doubt why Happy feels competitive. "I'm losing weight."

"I don't know what gets into me, maybe I just have an overdeveloped sense of competition or something."

Willy is bragging to his sons upon returning from a sales trip.

"I can park my car in any street in New England, and the cops protect it like their own."

Willy is stressing his false values to his boys.

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

Ben is speaking to Willy. Ben makes success seem absurdly simple.

"I have many enterprises, William, and I have never kept books."

Charley is trying to give Willy some advice. Willy believes that personality will always win the day.

"The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell."