John SteinbeckSuch is the prestige of the Nobel Award and of this place where I stand that I am impelled, not to speak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride… ▶371Philosophy
John SteinbeckThou 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 th… ▶371Truth
John SteinbeckThis is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning—from I to we. If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate… ▶361HumanityReadingSadness
John SteinbeckHard-covered books break up friendships. You loan a hard covered book to a friend and when he doesn’t return it you get mad at him. It makes you mean and petty. But twenty-five ce… ▶351Reading
John SteinbeckBut 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 ma… ▶362HumanityLove
John SteinbeckYour audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person-a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.374DeathReadingTime
John SteinbeckThe nicest thing in the world you can do for anybody is let them help you. ✨ John Steinbeck (2007). Travels with Charley and Later Novels, 1947-1962363Reading
John SteinbeckThere are some times...when the love for people is strong and warm like a sorrow. ✨ John Steinbeck (1995). To a God Unknown, p.58, Penguin341HumanityLoveSadness
John SteinbeckYou can boast about anything if it's all you have. Maybe the less you have, the more you are required to boast. ✨ John Steinbeck (2002). East of Eden, p.9, Penguin374Life
John SteinbeckCan you honestly love a dishonest thing? ✨ John Steinbeck (2008). The Winter of Our Discontent, p.161, Penguin363LoveTruth
John SteinbeckI 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 (2002)… ▶374Love
John SteinbeckThere is nothing pleasanter than spading when the ground is soft and damp.341Time
John SteinbeckOh, the strawberries don't taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch! ✨ John Steinbeck (2002). East of Eden, p.113, Penguin352Reflection
John SteinbeckShe seemed to know, to accept, to welcome her position, the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken. And since old Tom and the children could not know hurt… ▶363Humor
John SteinbeckSectional football games have the glory and the despair of war, and when a Texas team takes the field against a foreign state, it is an army with banners. ✨ John Steinbeck (… ▶341Politics
John SteinbeckNo man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself. ✨ John Steinbeck (2008). The Winter of Our Discontent, p.64, Pengu… ▶374Humanity
John SteinbeckIn writing, habit seems to be a much stronger force than either willpower or inspiration. ✨ John Steinbeck (1990). Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath, p.118, … ▶353Politics
John SteinbeckThe comfortable people in tight houses felt pity at first, and then distaste, and finally hatred for the migrant people. ✨ John Steinbeck (2016). The Grapes of Wrath, p.350,… ▶342HumanityReading
John SteinbeckAll war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal. ✨ John Steinbeck (2007). Once There Was a War, p.9, Penguin375Thought
John SteinbeckAnd it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way. 331Humanity
John SteinbeckThe redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce … ▶342SadnessTime
John SteinbeckIn uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. … ▶342DeathLifeLove
John SteinbeckIt is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it. ✨ John Steinbeck (2008). Sweet Thursday… ▶353Life
John SteinbeckThe Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one. It’s as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy to prove whether he was good enough to get to California. ✨ … ▶321Sadness
John SteinbeckAnd, of course, people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. ✨ John Steinbeck (2002). East of Eden, p.237, Penguin365Humanity
John SteinbeckA 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 … ▶354HumanityReading
John Steinbeck[Cannery Row's] inhabitants are, as the man once said, 'whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,' by which he meant everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he … ▶376Humor
John SteinbeckA writer lives in awe of words, for they can be cruel or kind, and they can change their meanings right in front of you. They pick up flavors and odors like butter in a refrigerat… ▶332LifePhilosophy
John SteinbeckWhy, Tom - us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people - we go on.' 'We tak… ▶332DeathHumanityTime
John SteinbeckI have owed you this letter for a very long time-but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool. ✨ Writers at Work. Book edited by George … ▶343ReadingTime
