|
441a880
|
I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
04a83e6
|
Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.
|
|
world
people
scared
|
John Steinbeck |
|
3cc92ed
|
There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
474d6b5
|
All great and precious things are lonely.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
300ae1c
|
I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is indestructible.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
f8ae791
|
And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
2a01295
|
It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.
|
|
loss
|
John Steinbeck |
|
5aec449
|
I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.
|
|
friendship
|
John Steinbeck |
|
52efc88
|
But the Hebrew word, the word timshel--'Thou mayest'-- that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if 'Thou mayest'--it is also true that 'Thou mayest not.
|
|
freedom
timshel
freedom-of-choice
hebrew
language
|
John Steinbeck |
|
27b02dd
|
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. This is what I am and what I am about.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
5e61f74
|
What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.
|
|
winter
life
opposites
summer
|
John Steinbeck |
|
62fe728
|
And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.
|
|
strength
|
John Steinbeck |
|
35124f9
|
I was born lost and take no pleasure in being found.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
59a431d
|
I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one. . . . Humans are caught--in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too--in a net of good and evil. . . . There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well--or ..
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
3ffdee8
|
When a child first catches adults out -- when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not always have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just -- his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It ..
|
|
fall-of-the-gods
growing-up
parents
|
John Steinbeck |
|
26ff415
|
There's more beauty in truth, even if it is dreadful beauty.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
37a70fb
|
I guess there are never enough books.
|
|
reading
sufficiency
|
John Steinbeck |
|
229400d
|
I have always lived violently, drunk hugely, eaten too much or not at all, slept around the clock or missed two nights of sleeping, worked too hard and too long in glory, or slobbed for a time in utter laziness. I've lifted, pulled, chopped, climbed, made love with joy and taken my hangovers as a consequence, not as a punishment.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
6ba353f
|
It has always seemed strange to me...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. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
bb40ca4
|
To be alive at all is to have scars.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
95eaae7
|
Do you take pride in your hurt? Does it make you seem large and tragic? ...Well, think about it. Maybe you're playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
8f2a043
|
My imagination will get me a passport to hell one day.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
730c4e0
|
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.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
9a491fb
|
No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
634c081
|
As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.
|
|
silence
|
John Steinbeck |
|
a380c05
|
A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
36874bb
|
Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids.
|
|
willful-ignorance
|
John Steinbeck |
|
700e69c
|
A kind of light spread out from her. And everything changed color. And the world opened out. And a day was good to awaken to. And there were no limits to anything. And the people of the world were good and handsome. And I was not afraid any more.
|
|
bravery
fear
|
John Steinbeck |
|
be7797a
|
People like you to be something, preferably what they are.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
e0c4752
|
A man so painfully in love is capable of self-torture beyond belief.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
fbd97fc
|
It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
ab1728c
|
If you're in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
c2f1f94
|
I shall revenge myself in the cruelest way you can imagine. I shall forget it.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
203fa20
|
A guy needs somebody--to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
dfeffeb
|
But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed - because 'Thou mayest.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
7446fcf
|
It was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials.
|
|
women
|
John Steinbeck |
|
e8cc43e
|
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.
|
|
truth-telling
crucifixion
|
John Steinbeck |
|
ce72460
|
We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending 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.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
bcc6ca0
|
Can you honestly love a dishonest thing?
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
b1d1170
|
People who are most afraid of their dreams convince themselves they don't dream at all.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
fbf31db
|
When a man says he does not want to speak of something he usually means he can think of nothing else.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
f4e7cb3
|
A man without words is a man without thought.
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
8dd5199
|
You've seen the sun flatten and take strange shapes just before it sinks in the ocean. Do you have to tell yourself every time that it's an illusion caused by atmospheric dust and light distorted by the sea, or do you simply enjoy the beauty of it?
|
|
|
John Steinbeck |
|
bd756e7
|
Perhaps the less we have, the more we are required to brag.
|
|
popularity
|
John Steinbeck |