“I wonder how many people I have looked at all my life and never really seen.” — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
I have wondered why is it that some people are less affected and torn by the verities of life and death that… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“And in my own life I am not willing to trade quality for quantity.” — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“It is a hard thing to leave any deeply routined life, even if you hate it.” — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Lord, how the day passes! It's like a life - so quickly when we don't watch it and so slowly when we… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
One must withdraw for a time from life in order to set down that picture. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
I think of my life as a kind of music, not always good music but still having form and melody. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Life could not change the sun or water the desert, so it changed itself. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen. It's scary to think about. Point of reference… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“In his middle life, at about the time such things were known about, it was discovered that, he had pernicious anemia. It… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Thy life is not thine own to govern, Danny, for it controls other lives. See how thy friends suffer! Spring to life,… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Critics are the eunuchs of literature. They stand by in envious awe while the whole man and his partner demonstrate the art… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“There are times that one treasures for all one's life, and such times are burned clearly and sharply on the material of… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“He was forever inventing a new way of doing an old thing and doing it better and quicker, but he never in… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Casy said solemnly, "This here ol' man jus' lived a life an' just died out of it. I don't know whether he… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“In all the mad incongruity, the turgid stultiloquy of life, I felt, at least, securely anchored to myself. Whatever the vacillations of… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Here you play in the street, little chicken. Some day an automobile will run over you; and if it kills you, that… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
“Down towards one end of the village, among the small houses, a dog complained about the cold and the loneliness. He raised… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Why, Tom - us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live.… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Why do men like me want sons? he wondered. It must be because they hope in their poor beaten souls that these… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
After the bare requisites to living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
You are not a man anymore. You are a soldier. Your comfort is of no importance and your life isn't of much… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Suppose it were true—Adam, the most rigidly honest man it was possible to find, living all his life on stolen money. Lee… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Now discontent nibbled at him - not painfully, but constantly. Where does discontent start? You are warm enough, but you shiver. You… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Old Sam Hamilton saw this coming. He said there couldn’t be any more universal philosophers. The weight of knowledge is too great… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“The Mayor spoke proudly. 'Yes, they will light it. I have no choice of living or dying, you see, sir, but—I do… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
He was born in fury and he lived in lightning. Tom came headlong into life. He was a giant in joy and… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“I seen turtles all my life. They’re always goin’ someplace. They always seem to want to get there.” — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“I have no choice of living or dying, you see, sir, but I do have a choice of how I do it.” — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Let’s get it over and the door closed shut on it! Let’s close it like a book and go on reading! New… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
He said, "I am a man," and that meant certain things to Juana. It meant that he was half insane and half… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
I have never smuggled anything in my life. Why, then, do I feel an uneasy sense of guilt on approaching a customs… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Woman can change better'n a man," Ma said soothingly. "Woman got all her life in her arms. Man got it all in… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Nobody has the right to remove any single experience from another. Life and death are promised. We have a right to pain.” — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
It’s a hard thing to leave any deeply routine life, even if you hate it. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
We are lonesome animals. We spend all life trying to be less lonesome. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“After the bare requisites to living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. My three [great teachers] did not… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
“And now submarines are armed with mass murder, our silly, only way of deterring mass murder.” — John Steinbeck Copy Share
“I’d think there are degrees of greatness,” Adam said. “I don’t think so,” said Samuel. “That would be like saying there is a little… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
“He was forever inventing a new way of doing an old thing and doing it better and quicker, but he never in his whole… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
“You come back a changed man. Samuel, you don’t change him. He changes you. I can see the look of him in your face.”… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
I find out of long experience that I admire all nations and hate all governments — John Steinbeck Copy Share
At about 10 o'clock in the morning the sun threw a bright dust-laden bar through one of the side windows and in and out… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
I have noticed that there is no dissatisfaction like that of the rich. Feed a man, clothe him, put him in a good house,… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
Sometimes, a lie is told in kindness. I don't believe it ever works kindly. The quick pain of truth can pass away, but the… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
“Suddenly he knew joy and sorrow felted into one fabric. Courage and fear were one thing too. He found that he had started to… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
I am writing this from what we Americans call Yurrp. In Yurrp writers are taken as seriously as Lana Turner's legs are in America… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
I write because I like to write. I find joy in the texture and tone and rhythm of words. It is a satisfaction like… — John Steinbeck Copy Share
