Quotes from John Steinbeck

When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror. 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.

the story of mankind's quest for profound comprehension of his commitment to his fellow man and to the earth he inhabits.

Tell 'em ya dong's growed sence you los' your eye.

Thank you for wanting to honor me with the truth, my son. It's not clever but it's more permanent.

Why, he'd kill a fella soon's he'd look at him. We got to keep these here people down or they'll take the country. They'll take the country. Outlanders, foreigners.

Cathy had the one quality required of a great and successful criminal: she trusted no one, confided in no one. Her self was an island.

I'm jus' gay as a toad in spring rain, said Tom.

Y a pas beaucoup de gars qui voyagent ensemble, dit-il d'un ton rêveur. J'sais pas pourquoi. Peut-être que les gens ont peur les uns des autres, dans ce sacré monde. - C'est bien plus agréable de voyager avec quelqu'un qu'on connaît, dit George.

Neden beklemiyorsun ki? Ä°leriye bak! Denizde daha iyi bal?klar var!' diyeceksiniz. Ama d??ar?dan bak?yorsunuz. Size ÅŸunu söyleyeyim ki, benim için daha iyi bal?k yok, hatta denizde baÅŸka bal?k yok. Bu bal?k olmazsa deniz ?ss?zla??r. Bunu kafan?za sokun!

enchilada in one's stomach

Americans are much more American than they are Northerners, Southerners, Westerners, or Easterners. And descendants of English, Irish, Italian, Jewish, German, Polish are essentially American

If you're in trouble, or hurt or need — go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help — the only ones.

Kiev deve ter sido em tempos uma bela cidade. E agora é pouco mais que uma ruína. Não se tratou de combates, mas sim da destruição demencial de todas as instalações culturais que a cidade tinha, e da quase totalidade dos belos edifícios erguidos ao longo de mil anos.

When any of his girls became pregnant they had the choice of leaving or of being aborted so brutally that a fair proportion died. In spite of this the girls usually chose abortion.

It was the same noble impulse that stripped the forests of the West and right now is pumping water out of California's earth faster than it can rain back in. When the desert comes, people will be sad;

Damn you, I want to think. I'll want to take this off alone where I can pick it apart and see. Maybe you've tumbled a world for me. And I don't know what I can build in my world's place.

If the other tire blew, there we were, on a wet and lonesome road, having no recourse except to burst into tears and wait for death. And perhaps some kind birds might cover us with leaves.

The rest had done wonders. Pain makes you set your jaw, and your eyes grow falsely bright with anxiety, and the muscles over the temples and along the cheeks, even the weak muscles near to the nose, stand out a little, and that is the look of sickness and of resistance to suffering.

Os ucranianos não são como os russos: são um tipo de eslavo diferente. E embora na sua maioria falem e leiam russo, a sua língua é diferente e autónoma, mais parecida com as línguas eslavas do Sul do que com o Russo. Muitas palavras ucranianas, em particular palavras relativas ao mundo rural, são as mesmas que em húngaro, e muitas das suas palavras são mais parecidas com o checo do que com o russo.

A day, a livelong day, is not one thing but many. It changes not only in growing light toward zenith and decline again, but in texture and mood, in tone and meaning, warped by a thousand factors of season, of heat or cold, of still or multi winds, torqued by odors, tastes, and the fabrics of ice or grass, of bud or leaf or black-drawn naked limbs. As a day changes so do its subjects, bugs and birds, cats, dogs, butterflies and people.

Mac, who in hell are these vigilantes, anyway? What kind of guys are they?" "Why, they're the dirtiest guys in any town. They're the same ones that burned the houses of old German people during the war. They're the same ones that lynch Negroes. They like to be cruel. They like to hurt people, and they always give it a nice name, patriotism or protecting the constitution. But they're just the old nigger torturers working.

A woman who knows all about men usually knows one part very well and can't conceive the other parts, but that doesn't mean they aren't there.

Well, tell me. You see, there's a responsibility in being a person. It's more than just taking up space where air would be. What

their mother is a whore.