Quotes from John Steinbeck

The Bank--or the Company--needs-wants-insists-must have-as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them.

Here we sit," he began at last. "—broken-hearted," Pilon added rhythmically.

Slim, Buna mecburdun George, dedi. BaÅŸka hiçbir çaren yoktu. Hadi gel benimle. George'u kolundan tutup anayola ç?kan patikaya doÄŸru götürdü. Curley ile Carlson onlar?n arkas?ndan bakt?lar. Carlson Yahu, dedi, nedir bu heriflerin derdi?

The winter night blew in with frosty wind, and the street lamps with their sputtering carbons swung restlessly and made the shadows dart back and forth like a runner trying to steal second base.

Mr. Edwards was essentially a simple man, but even a simple man has complexities which are dark and twisted. Catherine was clever, but even a clever woman misses some of the strange corridors in a man.

This here ol' man jus' lived a life an' just died out of it. I don' know whether he was good or bad, but that don't matter much. He was alive, an' that's what matters.

that one thing is all things - plankton, a shimmering phosphorescence on the sea and the spinning planets and an expanding universe, all bound together by the elastic string of time. It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again.

They have one quilt and a piece of canvas for bedding. The sleeping arrangement is clever. Mother and father lie down together and two children lie between them. Then heading the other way, the other two children lie, the littler ones. If the mother and father sleep with their legs spread wide, there is room for the legs of the children.

I began to formulate a new law describing the relationship of protection to despondency. A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.

Now it is over," he said sadly. "Now the great times are done. Thy friends will mourn, but nothing will come of their mourning." Danny

We will have to see whether the practicing through the years has prepared me for the writing of a book. For this is the book I have always wanted and have worked and prayed to be able to write. We shall see whether I am capable. Surely I feel humble in the face of this work. And as our Roman friends would say when casting outside themselves for help, Ora pro mihi. February

Almost instinctively he went about learning the truth and at the same time disbelieved it.

When a condition or a problem becomes too great, humans have the protection of not thinking about it. But it goes inward and minces up with a lot of other things already there and what comes out it discontent and uneasiness, guilt and a compulsion to get something—anything—before it is all gone.

From start to finish I found no strangers. If I had, I might be able to report them more objectively. But these are my people and this my country. If I found matters to criticize and to deplore, they were tendencies equally present in myself.

Lee asked, "How does Mrs. Hamilton feel about the paradoxes of the Bible?" "Why, she does not feel anything because she does not admit they are there." "But—" "Hush, man. Ask her. And you'll come out of it older but not less confused." Adam

Teresina went often to confession. She was the despair of Father Ramon. Indeed he had seen that while her knees, her hands, and her lips did penance for an old sin, her modest and provocative eyes, flashing under drawn lashes, laid the foundation for a new one. During

There's something desirable about anything you're to as opposed to something you're not.

Al bent over her. And he saw the bright evening star reflected in her eyes, and he saw the black cloud reflected in her eyes.

Se dice que los humanos no se satisfacen jamás, que se les da una cosa y siempre quieren algo más. Y se dice esto con erróneo desprecio, ya que es una de las mayores virtudes que tiene la especie y la que la hace superior a los animales que se dan por satisfechos con lo que tienen.

You can't hate men if you know them.

Surely most men are destroyed, but there are others who like pillars of fire guide frightened men through the darkness.

For hours he would lie absorbed in the economy of the ground.

We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that 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.

Pershing's expedition into Mexico after Villa had exploded one of our myths for a little while. We had truly believed that Mexicans can't shoot straight and besides were lazy and stupid.