Search quotes

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ▲ ▼

Link	Quote	Stars	Tags	Author
3b903b0	I should have known [...] I am the rain. [...] I am the land [...] and I am the rain. The grass will grow out of me in a little while.			John Steinbeck
35a7a4c	The land is so much more than its analysis.			John Steinbeck
25992c8	The people in flight from the terror behind-strange things happen to them, some bitterly cruel and some so beautiful that the faith is refired forever.			John Steinbeck
4065f20	It is possible, even probable, to be told a truth about a place, to accept it, to know it and at the same time not to know anything about it.			John Steinbeck
33db4f9	It is the nature of a man as he grows older, a small bridge in time, to protest against change, particularly change for the better. But it is true that we have exchanged corpulence for starvation, and either one will kill us.			John Steinbeck
1b41aed	Through my own efforts, I am lost most of the time without any help from anyone.			John Steinbeck
d7357e3	I think bullfights are for men who aren't very brave and wish they were. If you saw one you'll know what I mean. Remember after all the cape work when the bull tries to kill something that isn't there? Remember how he gets confused and uneasy, sometimes just stands and looks for an answer? Well, then they have to give him a horse or his heart will break. He has to get his horns into something solid or his spirit dies. Well, I'm that horse. ..			John Steinbeck
55338f6	The words are meaningless except in terms of feeling. Does anyone act as the result of thought or does feeling stimulate action and sometimes thought implement it.		feeling thought	John Steinbeck
562f446	The ways of sin are curious . . . I guess if a man had to shuck off everything he had, inside and out, he'd manage to hide a few little sins somewhere for his own discomfort. They're the last things we'll give up.			John Steinbeck
e2da887	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. [...] If it is right, it happens -- The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.			John Steinbeck
3b4383c	The direction of a big act will warp history, but probably all acts do the same in their degree, down to a stone stepped over in the path or the breath caught at sight of a pretty girl or a fingernail nicked in the garden soil.			John Steinbeck
3a98ab3	I know, Ma. I'm a-tryin'. But them deputies- Did you ever see a deputy that didn't have a fat ass? An' they waggle their ass an' flop their gun aroun'. Ma", he said, "if it was the law they was workin' with, why we could take it. But it ain't the law. They're a-working away at our spirits. They're a-tryin' to make us cringe an' crawl like a whipped bitch. They're tryin' to break us. Why, Jesus Christ, Ma, they comes a time when the on'y way..		law police	John Steinbeck
853f174	Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby those fruits may be eaten.			John Steinbeck
e108669	Well, Samuel rode lightly on top of a book and he balanced happily among ideas the way a man rides white rapids in a canoe. But Tom got into a book, crawled and groveled between the covers, tunneled like a mole among the thoughts, and came up with the book all over his face and hands.			John Steinbeck
d2dee22	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.... In the world ruled by tigers with ulcers, rutted by strictured bulls, scavenged by blind jackals.... What can it profit a man to gain the whole world and to come to his property with a gastric ulcer, a blown prostate, and bifocals?		love ulcers	John Steinbeck
0b07f31	Because he loved true things he tried to explain.			John Steinbeck
7492bf2	In the evening a strange thing happened: the twenty families became one family, the Children were the children of all. The loss of home became one loss, and the golden time in the West was one dream. And it might be that a sick child threw despair into the hearts of twenty families, of a hundred people; that a birth there in a tent kept a hundred people quiet and awestruck trough the night and filled a hundred people with the birth-joy in t..			John Steinbeck
a93a498	The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it.			John Steinbeck
838cb3c	There's something desirable about anything you're used to as opposed to something you're not.			John Steinbeck
69e4f05	In marching, in mobs, in football games, and in war, outlines become vague; real things become unreal and a fog creeps over the mind. Tension and excitement, weariness, movement--all merge in one great gray dream, so that when it is over, it is hard to remember how it was when you killed men or ordered them to be killed. Then other people who were not there tell you what it was like and you say vaguely, "yes, I guess that's how it was."			John Steinbeck
da9d559	I know, Ma. I'm a-tryin'. But them deputies- Did you ever see a deputy that didn't have a fat ass? An' they waggle their ass an' flop their gun aroun'. Ma", he said, "if it was the law they was workin' with, why we could take it. But it ain't the law. They're a-working away at our spirits. They're a-tryin' to make us cringe an' crawl like a whipped bitch. They're tryin' to break us. Why, Jesus Christ, Ma, they comes a time when the on'y way..		law police	John Steinbeck
58544b2	They come, an' they quit an' go on; an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever'body wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head.			John Steinbeck
575e3b5	Out of all this struggle a good thing is going to grow. That makes it worthwhile.			John Steinbeck
4061bbc	The sale of souls to gain the whole world is completely voluntary and almost unanimous...but not quite.			John Steinbeck
d6be48e	An unbelieved truth can hurt a man much more than a lie			John Steinbeck
ac7cd9c	As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment.			John Steinbeck
d418ee2	Thou mayest rule over sin,' Lee. That's it. I do not believe all men are destroyed. I can name you a dozen who were not, and they are the ones the world lives by. It is true of the spirit as it is true of battles--only the winners are remembered. Surely most men are destroyed, but there are others who like pillars of fire guide frightened men through the darkness. 'Thou mayest, Thou mayest!' What glory! It is true that we are weak and sick ..			John Steinbeck
3e8a8d9	During the dry years, the people forgot about the rich years, and when the wet years returned, they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.			John Steinbeck
2747df0	On the black earth on which the ice plants bloomed, hundreds of black stink bugs crawled. And many of them stuck their tails up in the air. "Look at all them stink bugs," Hazel remarked, grateful to the bugs for being there. "They're interesting," said Doc. "Well, what they got their asses up in the air for?" Doc rolled up his wool socks and put them in the rubber boots and from his pocket he brought out dry socks and a pair of thin mocc..		humanity religion praying	John Steinbeck
0f71c68	WHEREVER WE HAD BEEN in Russia, in Moscow, in the Ukraine, in Stalingrad, the magical name of Georgia came up constantly. People who had never been there, and who possibly never could go there, spoke of Georgia with a kind of longing and a great admiration. They spoke of Georgians as supermen, as great drinkers, great dancers, great musicians, great workers and lovers. And they spoke of the country in the Caucasus and around the Black Sea a..		tbilisi	John Steinbeck
faa028b	Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love.			John Steinbeck
53f00a6	The last clear definite function of man--muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need--this is man....For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments. This you may say of man--when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economi..		man john-steinback the-grapes-of-wrath idea	John Steinbeck
636a2c8	Then it is better, sir, to love whom one cannot have?" "Probably better," Lancelot said. "Certainly safer."			John Steinbeck
ad5b095	I always found in myself a dread of west and a love of east.			John Steinbeck
ce3b29a	Nobody has the right to remove any single experience from another. Life and death are promised. We have a right to pain.			John Steinbeck
5e6187c	There is a strange duality in the human which makes for an ethical paradox. We have definitions of good qualities and of bad; not changing things, but generally considered good and bad throughout the ages and throughout the species. Of the good, we think always of wisdom, tolerance, kindliness, generosity, humility; and the qualities of cruelty, greed, self-interest, graspingness, and rapacity are universally considered undesirable. And yet..		paradox	John Steinbeck
c75bbbe	It was a morning like other mornings and yet perfect among mornings.		nature simplicity peace	John Steinbeck
37fc9cc	I take a pleasure in inquiring into things. I've never been content to pass a stone without looking under it. And it is a black disappointment to me that I can never see the far side of the moon.		east-of-eden john-steinbeck	John Steinbeck
038251d	There is a great deal to be seen in the tilt of a hat on a man.			John Steinbeck
7e41ac4	In the bathroom two water tumblers were sealed in cellophane sacks with the words: "These glasses are sterilized for your protection." Across the toilet seat a strip of paper bore the message: "This seat has been sterilized with ultraviolet light for your protection." Everyone was protecting me and it was horrible." --			John Steinbeck
3d1acea	We only have one story. All novels, all poetry are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil.			John Steinbeck
0f25786	It is better to sit in appreciative contemplation of a world in which beauty is eternally supported on a foundation of ugliness: cut out the support, and beauty will sink from sight.			John Steinbeck
b1a2836	I've never been content to pass a stone without looking under it. And it is a black disappointment to me that I can never see the far side of the moon.			John Steinbeck
8fcfc7d	When you're a child you're the center of everything. Other people? They're only ghosts furnished for you to talk to. But when you grow up you take your place and you're your own size and shape. Things go out of you to others and come in from other people. It's worse, but it's much better too.			John Steinbeck

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ▲ ▼