Life Quotes by John Steinbeck

A man without words is a man without thought.

— John Steinbeck

Only mediocrity escapes criticism.

— John Steinbeck

“Can a man think out his life, or must he just tag along?”

— John Steinbeck

I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen.

— John Steinbeck

life passes by in a wink so try to never miss a moment of it

— John Steinbeck

Muscles aching to work, minds aching to create - this is man.

— John Steinbeck

People do not want advice - they want corroboration.

— John Steinbeck

American married life is the doormat to the whorehouse.

— John Steinbeck

“And finally comes culture, which is entertainment, relaxation, transport out of the pain of living.”

— John Steinbeck

Fearful and unprepared, we have assumed lordship over the life or death of the whole world, of all living things.

— John Steinbeck

“It's like a life--so quickly when we don't watch it and so slowly when we do.”

— John Steinbeck

“You have defied not the pearl buyers, but the whole structure, the whole way of life, and I am afraid for you”

— John Steinbeck

One man was so mad at me that he ended his letter Beware. You will never get out of this world alive.

— John Steinbeck

How can we live without our lives? How will we know it's us without our past?

— John Steinbeck

I think of my life as a kind of music, not always good music but still having form and melody.

— John Steinbeck

I have wondered why is it that some people are less affected and torn by the verities of life and death that…

— John Steinbeck

“A dying organism is often observed to be capable of extraordinary endurance and strength. ... When any living organism is attacked, its…

— John Steinbeck

When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influences and genius, if he dies unloved his life must…

— John Steinbeck

“Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness…

— John Steinbeck

“A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have only the hard, clean questions: Was…

— John Steinbeck

“Critics are the eunuchs of literature. They stand by in envious awe while the whole man and his partner demonstrate the art…

— John Steinbeck

“Thy life is not thine own to govern, Danny, for it controls other lives. See how thy friends suffer! Spring to life,…

— John Steinbeck

A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean question:…

— John Steinbeck

We are lonesome animals. We spend all our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell…

— John Steinbeck

No one knows how greatness comes to a man. It may lie in his blackness, sleeping, or it may lance into him…

— John Steinbeck

In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved.…

— John Steinbeck

“She planted that terror of debt so deeply in her children that even now, in a changed economic pattern where indebtedness is…

— John Steinbeck

A man may have lived all of his life in the gray, and the land and trees of him dark and somber.…

— John Steinbeck

“Here you play in the street, little chicken. Some day an automobile will run over you; and if it kills you, that…

— John Steinbeck

“Seems like our life's over and done." "No, it ain't," Ma smiled. "It ain't, Pa. An' that's one more thing a woman…

— John Steinbeck

“Down towards one end of the village, among the small houses, a dog complained about the cold and the loneliness. He raised…

— John Steinbeck

Why, Tom - us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live.…

— John Steinbeck

“It wasn’t very long until all the land in the barren hills near King City and San Ardo was taken up, and…

— John Steinbeck

There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the…

— John Steinbeck

“Who doesn't like to be a center for concern? A kind of second childhood falls on so many men. They trade their…

— John Steinbeck

“I guess we're all, or most of us, the wards of that nineteenth-century science which denied existence to anything it could not…

— John Steinbeck

“I can’t tell you how to live your life,” Samuel said, “although I do be telling you how to live it. I…

— John Steinbeck

“Pa said, "Won't you say a few words? Ain't none of our folks ever been buried without a few words." Connie led…

— John Steinbeck

“A kind of second childhood falls on so many men. They trade their violence for the promise of a small increase of…

— John Steinbeck

“We sat on a crate of oranges and thought what good men most biologists are, the tenors of the scientific world--temperamental, moody,…

— John Steinbeck