John Steinbeck quotes - page 15

It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There's a punishment for it and it's usually crucifixion. (John Steinbeck)
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.
John Steinbeck
When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you've got two new people.
John Steinbeck
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
It doesn't matter that Cathy was what I have called a monster. Perhaps we can't understand Cathy, but on the other hand we are capable of many things in all directions, of great virtues and great sins. And who in his mind has not probed the black water?
John Steinbeck
In every bit of honest writing in the world ... there is a base theme. 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
When such a viewing-point man thinks of Jesus or St. Augustine or Socrates he regards them with love because they are the symbols of the good he admires, and he hates the symbols of the bad. But actually he would rather be successful than good.
John Steinbeck
Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man.
John Steinbeck
None of it is important or all of it is.
John Steinbeck
For how can one know color in perpetual green, and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness?
John Steinbeck
There is a strange duality in the human which makes for an ethical paradox. (John Steinbeck)
Faulkner, more than most men, was aware of human strength as well as of human weakness.
John Steinbeck
In a modern scene, when the horizons stretch out and your philosopher is likely to fall off the world like a Dark Age mariner, he can save himself by establishing a taboo-box which he may call "mysticism" or "supernaturalism" or "radicalism." Into this box he can throw all those thoughts which frighten him and thus be safe from them.
John Steinbeck
Then a man pours outward, a torrent of him, and yet he is not diminished...
John Steinbeck
Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head.
John Steinbeck
Oh! the incidents all happened but - I'm not telling as much of the truth about them as I know.
John Steinbeck
There is the will of the people to endure and fight against oppression. I think we call this the American spirit.
John Steinbeck
We have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to God. Fearful and unprepared, we have assumed lordship over the life or death of the whole world - of all living things.
John Steinbeck
In the end is the Word, and the Word is Man - and the Word is with Men.
John Steinbeck
The techniques of opening conversation are universal.
John Steinbeck
He sings the songs of a people and I suspect that he is, in a way, that people. (John Steinbeck)
If the glory can be killed, we are lost.
John Steinbeck
I must go over into the interior valleys. ... There are five thousand families starving to death over there, not just hungry but actually starving.
John Steinbeck
Boileau said that Kings, Gods and Heroes only were fit subjects for literature. The writer can only write about what he admires.
John Steinbeck
Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.
John Steinbeck