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2dbd052
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When I was a kid my ol' man give me a haltered heifer an' says take her down an git her serviced. An' the fella says, I done it, an' ever' time since then when I hear a business man talkin' about service, I wonder who's gettin' screwed.
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John Steinbeck |
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59954c0
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Relationship Time to Aloneness. And I remember about that. Having a companion fixes you in time and that the present, but when the quality of aloneness settles down, past, present, and future all flow together. A memory, a present event, and a forecast all equally present.
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time
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John Steinbeck |
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54a62f6
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Then it don't matter. I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build - I'll ..
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John Steinbeck |
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b7176c2
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There were frogs all right, thousands of them. Their voices beat the night, they boomed and barked and croaked and rattled. They sang to the stars, to the waning moon, to the waving grasses. They bellowed long songs and challenges.
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John Steinbeck |
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9ce777f
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Because time does the job, dynamite can't touch. (Samuel Hamilton)
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time-passing
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John Steinbeck |
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3c7deae
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A day, a livelong day, is not one thing but many.
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John Steinbeck |
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08de05a
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The direction of a big act will warp history, but probably all acts will do the same thing in their degree, down to a stone stepped over in a path or a breath caught at the sight of a pretty girl or a finger nail nicked in the garden soil.
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history
direction
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John Steinbeck |
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d0ee49c
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I've tried to figure it out. When we were children we lived in a story that we made up. But when I grew up the story wasn't enough. I had to have something else, because the story wasn't true anymore. Aron didn't grow up. Maybe he never will. He wanted the story and he wanted it to come out his way. He couldn't stand to have it come out any other way. I don't want to know how it comes out. I only want to be there while it's going on. We wer..
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John Steinbeck |
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363d818
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What I am mourning is perhaps not worth saving, but I regret its loss nevertheless.
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mourning
life
regrets
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John Steinbeck |
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f5d0cd8
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There seemed to be no cure for loneliness save only being alone.
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John Steinbeck |
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c898b4b
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I think I can," Lee answered Samuel. "I think this is the best-known story in the world because it is everybody's story. I think it is the symbol story of the human soul. I'm feeling my way now--don't jump on me if I'm not clear. The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved, and rejection is the hell he fears. I think everyone in the world to a large or small extent has felt rejection. And with rejection comes anger, and wit..
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John Steinbeck |
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0974e47
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To most of the world success is never bad. I remember how, when Hitler moved unchecked and triumphant, many honorable men sought and found virtues in him. And Mussolini made the trains run on time, and Vichy collaborated for the good of France, and whatever else Stalin was, he was strong. Strength and success--they are above morality, above criticism. It seems, then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it. Is the..
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John Steinbeck |
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ce2a8de
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Morning seems to come earlier every year I live.
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time
life
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John Steinbeck |
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a9a131f
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Lee, I'm not good enough for him." "Now, what do you mean by that?" "I'm not being funny. He doesn't think about me. He's made someone up, and it's like he put my skin on her. I'm not like that--not like the made-up one." "What's she like?" "Pure!" said Abra. "Just absolutely pure. Nothing but pure--never a bad thing. I'm not like that." "Nobody is," said Lee. "He doesn't know me. He doesn't even want to know me. He wants that--white--ghost..
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John Steinbeck |
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f52f5f3
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For it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more. And this is said in disparagement, whereas it is one of the greatest talents the species has and one that has made it superior to animals that are satisfied with what they have.
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John Steinbeck |
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9630a84
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Laughter comes later, like wisdom teeth, and laughter at yourself comes last of all in a mad race with death, and sometimes it isn't in time.
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John Steinbeck |
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c5e6cce
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They was this rich fella, an he makes like he's poor, an they's this rich girl, an she purtends like she's poor too, an' they meet in a hamburg' stan' Why? I don't know why-that's how it was. Why'd they purtend like they's poor? Well, they're tired of bein' rich. Horseshit! You want to hear this, or not? Well, go on then. Sure, I wanta hear it, but if I was rich, if I was rich I'd get so many pork chops-I'd cord 'em up aroun' me like wood, ..
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John Steinbeck |
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8609c60
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Go through the motions, Adam." "What motions?" "Act out being alive, like a play. And after a while, a long while, it will be true."
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John Steinbeck |
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c195e83
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Do you believe that a man in need can call soundlessly to another?" "Perhaps, my lord. It has happened to me that thinking of a friend and meeting him are connected. But does thinking draw him or his coming draw the thought?"
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John Steinbeck |
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1b18d54
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When our food and clothing and housing all are born in the complication of mass production, mass method is bound to get into our thinking and to eliminate all other thinking.
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John Steinbeck |
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a56e0a1
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Perhaps it is so with everyone, that he looks for weakness in the strong to find promise of strength in his weakness.
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John Steinbeck |
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bf6deed
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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. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second."
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John Steinbeck |
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aad4c24
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The wedding was in Monterey, a sombre boding ceremony in a little Protestant chapel. The church had so often seen two ripe bodies die by the process of marriage that it seemed to celebrate a mystic double death with its ritual.
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John Steinbeck |
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48487c4
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You can't make a race horse of a pig." "No," said Samuel, "but you can make a very fast pig."
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John Steinbeck |
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5936b00
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They walked side by side along the dark beach toward Monterey, where the lights hung, necklace above necklace against the hill. The sand dunes crouched along the back of the beach like tired hounds, resting: and the waves gently practiced at striking, and hissed a little. The night was cold and aloof, and its warm life was withdrawn, so that it was full of bitter warnings to man that he is alone in the world, and alone among his fellows; th..
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John Steinbeck |
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3c17678
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A man with a beard, ordering a beer milk shake in a town where he wasn't known--they might call the police.
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John Steinbeck |
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7f1aa00
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A reputation for money is almost as negotiable as money itself.
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John Steinbeck |
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6984399
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Pa said, "Won't you say a few words? Ain't none of our folks ever been buried without a few words." Connie led Rose of Sharon to the graveside, she reluctant. "You got to," Connie said. "It ain't decent not to. It'll jus' be a little. The firelight fell on the grouped people, showing their faces and their eyes, dwindling on their dark clothes.All the hats were off now. The light danced, jerking over the people. Casy said, It'll be a shor..
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death
life
last-words
funeral
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John Steinbeck |
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b6b0964
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You're not clever. You don't know what you want. You have no proper fierceness. You let other people walk over you. Sometimes I think you're a weakling who will never amount to a dog turd. Does that answer your question? I love you better. I always have.
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John Steinbeck |
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53bd1db
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Nearly everyone has his box of secret pain, shared with no one. Will had concealed his well, laughed loud, exploited perverse virtues, and never let his jealousy go wandering. He thought of himself as slow, doltish, conservative, uninspired. No great dream lifted him high and no despair forced self destruction. He was always on the edge, trying to hold on to the rim of the family with what gifts he had--care, and reason, application. He kep..
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John Steinbeck |
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91246fa
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New York November 10, 1958 Dear Thom: We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers. First--if you are in love--that's a good thing--that's about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don't let anyone make it small or light to you. Second--There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly..
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John Steinbeck |
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77d7823
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It is strange to an American that the English, who love dogs and rarely eat them, nevertheless are brutal with vegetables. It is just one of those national differences which are unfathomable.
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John Steinbeck |
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a0c8655
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Samuel said that Tom was quavering over greatness, trying to decide whether he could take the cold responsibility. Samuel knew his son's quality and felt the potential of violence, and it frightened him, for Samuel had no violence--even when he hit Adam Trask with his fist he had no violence. And the books that came into the house, some of them secretly--well, Samuel rode lightly on top of a book and he balanced happily among ideas the way ..
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John Steinbeck |
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8475559
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The Pacific is my home ocean; I knew it first, grew up on its shore, collected marine animals along the coast. I know its moods, its color, its nature.
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nature
marine
pacific-ocean
sea
ocean
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John Steinbeck |
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ccb22d1
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I think perhaps Liza accepted the world as she accepted the Bible, with all of its paradoxes and its reverses. She did not like death but she knew it existed, and when it came it did not surprise her. Samuel may have thought and played and philosophized about death, hut he did not really believe in it. His world did not have death as a member. He, and all around him, was immortal. When real death came it was an outrage, a denial of the immo..
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John Steinbeck |
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f7877b4
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I'm gonna try to learn. Gonna learn why folks walk in the grass, gonna hear 'em talk, gonna hear 'em sing. Gonna listen to kids eatin' mush. Gonna hear husban' an' wife a-poundin' the mattress in the night. Gonna eat with 'em an' learn. Gonna lay in the grass, open an' honest with anybody that'll have me. Gonna cuss an' swear an' hear the poetry of folks talkin'. All that's holy, all that's what I didn't understan'. All them things is good ..
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John Steinbeck |
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a411f25
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He has come to be the great man he thought he wanted to be. If this is true, then he is not a man. He is still a little boy and wants the moon.
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John Steinbeck |
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e3a91c7
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You can only fight Fate so far, and when you give in to it you're very strong; because all of your force flows in one direction.
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John Steinbeck |
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3739292
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Liza had a finely developed sense of sin Idleness was a sin, and card playing, which was a kind of idleness to her. She was suspicious of fun whether it involved dancing or singing or even laughter. She felt that people having a good time were wide open to the devil. And this was a shame, for Samuel was a laughing man, but I guess Samuel was wide open to the devil. His wife protected him whenever she could.
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John Steinbeck |
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3cbf1df
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A plan once made and visualized becomes a reality along with other realities- never to be destroyed but easily to be attacked. Thus Kino's future was real, but having set it up, other forces were set up to destroy it, and this he knew, so that he had to prepare to meet the attack. And this Kino knew also- that the gods do not love men's plans, and the gods do not love success unless it comes by accident.
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John Steinbeck |
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807be3e
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Dessie's] shop was a unique institution in Salinas. It was a woman's world. Here all the rules, and the fears that created the iron rules, went down. The door was closed to men. It was a sanctuary where women could be themselves- smelly, wanton, mystic, conceited, truthful, and interested. The whalebone corsets came off at Dessie's, the sacred corsets that moulded and warped woman-flesh into goddess-flesh. At Dessie's they were women who we..
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John Steinbeck |
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cc04294
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American cities are like badger holes, ringed with trash -- all of them -- surrounded by piles of wrecked and rusting automobiles, and almost smothered with rubbish. Everything we use comes in boxes, cartons, bins, the so-called packaging we love so much. The mountains of things we throw away are much greater than the things we use. In this, if no other way, we can see the wild an reckless exuberance of our production, and waste seems to be..
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garbage
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John Steinbeck |
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f55b863
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And now the group was welded to one thing, one unit, so that in the dark the eyes of the people were inward, and their minds played in other times, and their sadness was like rest, like sleep.
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John Steinbeck |
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7194947
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Aron said slowly. "I wouldn't want to know that. I'd like to know why you do it. You're always at something. I just wonder why you do it. I wonder what's it good for." A pain pierced Cal's heart. His planning suddenly seemed mean and dirty to him. He knew that his brother had found him out. And he felt a longing for Aron to love him. He felt lost and hungry and he didn't know what to do."
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John Steinbeck |