John Steinbeck Quotes

People are felt rather than seen after the first few moments.

In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved.

This monster of a land, this mightiest of nations, this spawn of the future, turns out to be the macrocosm of microcosm me.

... a man is a very important thing-maybe more important than a star.

Our people are good people; our people are kind people. Pray God some day kind people won't all be poor.

[He] fell right into the oldest conviction in the world-- that the girl you are in love with can't possibly be anything but true and honest.

He drank too much when he could get it, ate too much when it was there, talked too much all the time.

At about 10 o'clock in the morning the sun threw a bright dust-laden bar through one of the side windows and in and out of the beam flies shot like rushing stars.

Hate cannot live alone. It must have love as a trigger, a goad, or a stimulant.

I should have known I am the rain. I am the land and I am the rain. The grass will grow out of me in a little while.

Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is.

I know this... a man got to do what he got to do.

For the most part people are not curious except about themselves.

And this you can know- fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.

I see too many men delay their exits with a sickly, slow reluctance to leave the stage. It's bad theater as well as bad living.

I think of my life as a kind of music, not always good music but still having form and melody.

Sometimes a kind of glory lights up the mind of a man.

Says he foun' he jus' got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain't no good, 'cause his little piece of a soul wasn't no good 'less it was with the rest, an' was whole.

There is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter.

Nobody changes. Nobody gets hurt.

A writer lives in awe of words, for they can be cruel or kind, and they can change their meanings right in front of you. They pick up flavors and odors like butter in a refrigerator.

A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has as many versions as it has readers.

You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous.

Trips to fairly unknown regions should be made twice; once to make mistakes and once to correct them.

Maybe-- maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure-- never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself?

The lies we tell about our duty and our purposes, the meaningless words of science and philosophy, are walls that topple before a bewildered little ‘why’.

Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of a human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed

Three hours of writing require twenty hours of preparation. Luckily I have learned to dream about the work, which saves me some working time.

Don't you love Jesus?' Well, I thought an' I thought an' finally I says, 'No, I don't know nobody name' Jesus. I know a bunch of stories, but I only love people.

Any man of reasonable intelligence can make money if that's what he wants. Mostly it's women or clothes or admiration he really wants and they deflect him.

Sometimes, a lie is told in kindness. I don't believe it ever works kindly. The quick pain of truth can pass away, but the slow, eating agony of a lie is never lost.

We have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to God.

Every man in a bank hates what the bank does and yet the bank does it.

On all levels American society is rigged. I am troubled by the cynical immorality of my country. It cannot survive on this basis.

The power of an attitude is amazing

I need a dog pretty badly. I dreamed of dogs last night. They sat in a circle and looked at me and I wanted all of them.

...to find where you are going, you must know where you are.

People don't want advice...only corroboration.

You ain't worth a greased lack pin to ram you into hell.

So much there is to see, but our morning eyes describe a different world than do our afternoon eyes, and surely our wearied evening eyes can report only a weary evening world.

... you must not expect to find that people understand what they do.

We think of strangers as stronger and better than we are.

The misery stayed, not thought about but aching away, and sometimes I would have to ask myself, Why do I ache? Men can get used to anything, but it takes time.

When you know a friend is there you do not go to see him. Then he's gone and you blast your conscience to shreds that you did not see him.

..it's awful not to be loved. It's the worst thing in the world...It makes you mean, and violent, and cruel.

Poetry is the mathematics of writing and closely kin to music.

All men are moral. Only their neighbors are not.

Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope. So that today, St. John the apostle may well be paraphrased: In the end is the Word, and the Word is Man - and the Word is with Men.

But most important of all, the truth, that dangerous stuff, became beautiful and more precious.

With a few exceptions people don't want money. They want luxury and they want love and they want admiration.