Men Quotes by John Steinbeck · Page 2

Only let a man say that he will do something and a whole mechanism goes to work to stop him.

— John Steinbeck

Men seem to be born with a debt they can never pay no matter how hard they try.

— John Steinbeck

...no gift will ever buy back a man's love when you have removed his self-love.

— John Steinbeck

If I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble.

— John Steinbeck

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

— John Steinbeck

A man who gets few letters does not open one lightly.

— John Steinbeck

I find it valid to understand man as an animal before I am prepared to know him as a man.

— John Steinbeck

“Some men ease themselves like setting hens into the nest of death.”

— John Steinbeck

“But some men are friends with the whole world in their hearts, and there are others that hate themselves and spread their…

— John Steinbeck

When a man says he does not want to speak of something he usually means he can think of nothing else.

— John Steinbeck

“Henry liked fun and avoided when he could any solemn or serious matter, for he confused these with sorrow.”

— john steinbeck

Any man of reasonable intelligence can make money if that's what he wants. Mostly it's women or clothes or admiration he really…

— John Steinbeck

And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind…

— John Steinbeck

A boy gets to be a man when a man is needed. Remember this thing. I have known boys forty years old…

— John Steinbeck

Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby those fruits may be eaten.

— 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

Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope. So that today, St. John the apostle may well be paraphrased:…

— 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

“Sometimes in the summer evenings they walked up the hill to watch the afterglow clinging to the tops of the western mountains…

— John Steinbeck

And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth…

— John Steinbeck

In my heart there may be doubt that I deserve the Nobel award over other men of letters whom I hold in…

— John Steinbeck

The techniques of opening conversation are universal. I knew long ago and rediscovered that the best way to attract attention, help, and…

— John Steinbeck

Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a…

— John Steinbeck

Such is the prestige of the Nobel Award and of this place where I stand that I am impelled, not to speak…

— John Steinbeck

We have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to God. Fearful and unprepared, we have assumed lordship over the life…

— John Steinbeck

“Nearly everyone has had a box of secret pain, shared with no one. Will [Hamilton] had concealed his well, laughed loud, exploited…

— john steinbeck

The Hebrew word, the word timshel - 'Thou mayest' - that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in…

— John Steinbeck

“Tom felt his darkness. His father was beautiful and clever, his mother was short and mathematically sure. Each of his brothers and…

— John Steinbeck

I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one. . . . Humans are caught—in their lives, in…

— John Steinbeck

Look now — in all of history men have been taught that killing of men is an evil thing not to be…

— John Steinbeck

[Man] is the only animal who lives outside of himself, whose drive is in external things—property, houses, money, concepts of power. He…

— John Steinbeck

Thou mayest rule over sin,’ Lee. That’s it. I do not believe all men are destroyed. I can name you a dozen…

— John Steinbeck

Show me the man who isn't interested in discussing himself.

— John Steinbeck

Some men hunger so much for love that they lose everything that is loveable about them.

— John Steinbeck

Man has a choice and it's a choice that makes him a man.

— John Steinbeck

It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.

— John Steinbeck

It must be a hard thing to kill a man you don't know and don't hate.

— John Steinbeck

Man has become our greatest hazard, and our only hope.

— John Steinbeck

A book is like a man - clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly.

— John Steinbeck

A man on a horse is spiritually, as well as physically, bigger then a man on foot.

— John Steinbeck