Quotes
2,628 quote
Man, unlike anything organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.
John Steinbeck
•
The Grapes of Wrath
Novel
Somewhere in the world there is a defeat for everyone. Some are destroyed by defeat, and some made small and mean by victory. Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory.
John Steinbeck
•
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
Novel
If lowborn men could stand up to those born to rule, religion, government, the whole world would fall to pieces ... So it would; so it will ... then the pieces will be put together again by such as destroyed it.
John Steinbeck
•
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
Novel
No one knows how greatness comes to a man. It may lie in his blackness, sleeping, or it may lance into him like those driven fiery particles from outer space. These things, however, are known about greatness: need gives it life and puts it in action; it never comes without pain; it leaves a man changed, chastened, and exalted at the same time--he can never return to simplicity.
John Steinbeck
•
Sweet Thursday
Novel
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.
John Steinbeck
•
Sweet Thursday
Novel
Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.
John Steinbeck
•
Sweet Thursday
Novel
Just like heaven. Ever'body wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head. They're all the time talkin' about it, but it's jus' in their head.
John Steinbeck
•
Of Mice and Men
Novel
I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick.
John Steinbeck
•
Of Mice and Men
Novel
Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.
John Steinbeck
•
Of Mice and Men
Novel
Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head.
John Steinbeck
•
Of Mice and Men
Novel
Guy don't need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus' works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain't hardly ever a nice fella.
John Steinbeck
•
Of Mice and Men
Novel
You ain't worth a greased lack pin to ram you into hell.
John Steinbeck
•
Of Mice and Men
Novel
Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love.
John Steinbeck
•
Of Mice and Men
Novel
His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought.
John Steinbeck
•
Of Mice and Men
Novel
The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty.
John Steinbeck
•
In Awe of Words
Novel
Cathy's lies were never innocent. Their purpose was to escape punishment, or work, or responsibility, and they were used for profit. Most liars are tripped up either because they forget what they have told or because the lie is suddenly faced with an incontrovertible truth. But Cathy did not forget her lies, and she developed the most effective method of lying. She stayed close enough to the truth so that one could never be sure. She knew two other methods also -- either to interlard her lies with truth or to tell a truth as though it were a lie. If one is accused of a lie and it turns out to be the truth, there is a backlog that will last a long time and protect a number of untruths.
John Steinbeck
•
East Of Eden
Novel
Perhaps it takes courage to raise children.
John Steinbeck
•
East Of Eden
Novel
Monsters are variations from the accepted normal to a greater or a less degree. As a child may be born without an arm, so one may be born without kindness or the potential of conscience.
John Steinbeck
•
East Of Eden
Novel
It's nice for a mediocre man to know that greatness must be the loneliest state in the world.
John Steinbeck
•
East Of Eden
Novel
When a man says he does not want to speak of something he usually means he can think of nothing else.
John Steinbeck
•
East Of Eden
Novel