Quotes from John Steinbeck

Toen ik heel jong was en de drang om ergens anders te zijn voelde, verzekerden volwassen mensen me dat volwassenheid me van dit verlangen af zou helpen. Toen ik, wat jaren betreft, volwassen was geworden, was middelbare leeftijd de voorgeschreven remedie. Op middelbare leeftijd werd mij verzekerd dat een nog hogere leeftijd de koorts zou doen afnemen en nu ik achtenvijftig ben, is seniliteit wellicht de oplossing.

I say to you, without pleasure, that this son of ours will be a great man, because -- well -- because he is not very intelligent. He can see only one desire at a time. I said he tested his dreams; he will murder every dream with the implacable arrows of his will. This boy will win to every goal of his aiming; for he can realize no thought, no reason, but his own. And I am sorry for his coming greatness...

Daca nu poti vedea sau auzi sau atinge un om, e mai bine sa-l lasi in pace.

Chorar é fácil; o difícil é aguentar firme.

I remember that the Gabilan Mountains to the east of the valley were light gay mountains full of sun and loveliness and a kind of invitation, so that you wanted to climb into their warm foothills almost as you want to climb into the lap of a beloved mother.

Eructation of.

1. Don't believe nobody. The bastards are after you. 2. Keep your mouth shut. Don't stick your neck out. 3. Keep your ears open. When they make a slip, grab on to it and wait. 4. Everybody's a son of a bitch and whatever you do they got it coming. 5. Go at everything roundabout. 6. Don't never trust no dame about nothing. 7. Put your faith in dough. Everybody wants it. Everybody will sell out for it.

Greatness is lonely and mediocre people feel consoled by that thought. One has to choose between greatness and mediocrity oneself and the responsibility is all theirs if they accept greatness.

Cal's mind careened in anger at himself and in pity for himself. And then a new voice came into it, saying coolly and with contempt, "If you're being honest—why not say you are enjoying this beating you're giving yourself? That would be the truth. Why not be just what you are and do just what you do?" Cal sat in shock from this thought. Enjoying?—of course. By whipping himself he protected himself against whipping by someone else.

My wife is a wonderful woman," he said in a kind of peroration. "Most wonderful woman. Ought to of been a man. If she was a man I wouldn't of married her." He laughed a long time over that and repeated it three or four times and resolved to remember it so he could tell it to a lot of other people.

maybe it's all men an' all women we love; maybe that's the Holy Sperit—the human sperit—the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever'body's a part of.' Now I sat there thinkin' it, an' all of a suddent—I knew it. I knew it so deep down that it was true, and I still know it.

It made him feel alive; he seemed to be living more acutely than at other times.

A man who loses his arms in an accident has a great struggle to adjust himself to the lack, but one born without arms sutlers only from people who find him strange. Having never had arms, he cannot miss them.

men in fear and hunger destroy their stomachs in the fight to secure certain food, where men hungering for love destroy everything lovable about them.

And, of course, people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. And I here make a rule - a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting - only the deeply personal and familiar.

It has always seemed strange to me," said Doc. "The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success.

Since the East End School was way to hell and gone across town and the children who lived east of Main Street attended there, I will not bother with it.

Her hazel eyes seemed to have experienced all possible tragedy and to have mounted pain and suffering like steps into a high calm and a superhuman understanding. She seemed to know, to accept, to welcome her position, the citadel of the family

And as a few strokes on the nose will make a puppy head shy, so a few rebuffs will make a boy shy all over. But whereas a puppy will cringe away or roll on its back, groveling, a little boy may cover his shyness with nonchalance, with bravado, or with secrecy. And once a boy has suffered rejection, he will find rejection even where it does not exist--or, worse, will draw it forth from people simply by expecting it.

There's more beauty in truth, even if it is dreadful beauty.

Yes, I do. Yes, I do. It is easy out of laziness, out of weakness, to throw oneself into the lap of deity, saying, 'I couldn't help it; the way was set.' But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey. There's no godliness there. And do you know, those old gentlemen who were sliding gently down to death are too interested to die now?

Why, you mouse—you nasty cur. With goodness all around you—don't you dare suggest a thing like that! Why is your sorrow more refined than my sorrow?

There's more beauty in the truth even if it is dreadful beauty. The storytellers at the city gate twist life so that it looks sweet to the lazy and the stupid and the weak, and this only strengthens their infirmities and teaches nothing, cures nothing, nor does it let the heart soar

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.