John Steinbeck Quotes
An unbelieved truth can hurt a man much more than a lie. It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There's a punishment for it, and it's usually crucifixion.
What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.
The bank - the monster has to have profits all the time. It can't wait. It'll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can't stay one size.
Henry liked fun and avoided when he could any solemn or serious matter, for he confused these with sorrow.
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.
It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world.
Maybe the hardest thing in writing is simply to tell the truth about things as we see them.
It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.
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 design of a book is the pattern of a reality controlled and shaped by the mind of a writer.
If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another.
Suddenly he knew joy and sorrow felted into one fabric. Courage and fear were one thing too.
... 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.
No one doubts your courage, but you are a headstrong knight and when you choose a way you cannot change your course even if it lead to your destruction. That is your fault and your destiny.
It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.
You got a God. Don't make no difference if you don' know what he looks like.
No - the stars are close and dear and I have joined the brotherhood of the worlds. And everything's holy - everything, even me.
The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.
In human affairs of danger and delicacy successful conclusion is sharply limited by hurry.
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.
They had long ago found out that one could not be an owner unless one were cold.
I don't ever drink alone. It's not much fun. And I don't think I will until I am an alcoholic.
At such a time it seems natural and good to me to ask myself these questions. What do I believe in? What must I fight for and what must I fight against?
The last clear definite function of men—muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need—this is man.
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.
...evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.
There are times that one treasures for all one's life, and such times are burned clearly and sharply on the material of total recall. I felt very fortunate that morning.
Money's easy to make if it's money you want. But with few exceptions people don't want money. They want luxury and they want love and they want admiration.
It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure on the world.
It was deeply a part of Lee's kindness and understanding that man's right to kill himself is inviolable, but sometimes a friend can make it unnecessary
Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones.
If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen. And here I make a rule—a great and interesting story is about everyone or it will not last.
Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain and if you don't believe that, watch an illiterate adult try to do it.
