John Steinbeck Quotes
I do love her, and that’s odd because she is everything I detest in anyone else.
In human affairs of danger and delicacy successful conclusion is sharply limited by hurry.
Tom's cowardice was as huge as his courage, as it must be in great men.
What I am mourning is perhaps not worth saving, but I regret its loss nevertheless.
...people don’t take trips—trips take people.
Curious how a place unvisited can take such hold on the mind so that the very name sets up a ringing.
Will liked to live so that no one could find fault with him, and to do that he had to live as nearly like other people as possible.
It gives a fella relief to tell, but it jus' spreads out his sin.
She liked the idea so well that she felt there must be something bordering on sin involved in it.
...and the break would never come as long as fear can turn to wrath.
And I here make a rule-a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting-only the deeply personal and familiar.
We still go where we want, even if we got to crawl for the right.' - Tom Joad (Jr.)
A man can do a lot of damage in the church. When someone comes here, he's got his guard up. But in church a man's wide open.
And now submarines are armed with mass murder, our silly, only way of deterring mass murder.
You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. You see what is, where most people see what they expect.
The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul?
... you can't start with a democracy. You have to work up through stuff like tyranny and monarchy first. That way people are so relived when they get to democracy that they hang on to it.
And the great owners, who had become through the might of their holdings both more and less than men
We're sorry. It's not us. It's the monster. The bank isn't a man. The bank isn't like a man.Yes, but the bank is only made of men.
I wanta buy stuff. Stuff I don't need... Stuff settin' out there, you jus' feel like buyin' it whether you need it or not.-Uncle John
And don't worry about losing. If i is right, it happens - the main thing is not to hurry.Nothing good gets away.
It would be a dreadful thing to tell anyone about it, for it would destroy some fragile structure of truth. It was truth that might be shattered by division.
No - the stars are close and dear and I have joined the brotherhood of the worlds. And everything's holy - everything, even me.
The mountains of things we throw away are much greater than the things we use. In this, if no other way, we can see the wild an reckless exuberance of our production, and waste seems to be the index.
You keep out of my bed, ” said Danny, for he knew that Joe Portagee had come to stay. The way he sat in a chair and crossed his knees had an appearance of permanence.
When you are writing, you must treat it as the most important thing in the world, even when you know it is not. This helps you take the job seriously and do your best on everything you write.
Well, we all got to make a livin'.""Yeah, " Tom said. "On'y I wisht they was some way to make her 'thout takin' her away from somebody else.
Then the hard, dry Spaniards came exploring through, greedy and realistic, and their greed was for gold or God. They collected souls as they collected jewels.
Sometimes it helps to pick out one person-a real person you know, or an imagined person-and write to that one.
He thought of the virtues of courage and forbearance, which become flabby when there is nothing to use them on.
Laughter comes later, like wisdom teeth. And laughter at yourself comes last of all in a mad race with death. And sometimes, it isn't in time.
In March the soft rains continued, and each storm waited courteously until its predecessor sunk beneath the ground.
That's why I'm talking to you. You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. You see what is, where most people see what they expect.
