One must withdraw for a time from life in order to set down that picture. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
One man was so mad at me that he ended his letter Beware. You will never get out of this world alive. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
How can we live without our lives? How will we know it's us without our past? — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“And finally comes culture, which is entertainment, relaxation, transport out of the pain of living.” — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“It's like a life--so quickly when we don't watch it and so slowly when we do.” — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“You have defied not the pearl buyers, but the whole structure, the whole way of life, and I am afraid for you” — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Fearful and unprepared, we have assumed lordship over the life or death of the whole world, of all living things. — 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
“A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have only the hard, clean questions: Was… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“A dying organism is often observed to be capable of extraordinary endurance and strength. ... When any living organism is attacked, its… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influences and genius, if he dies unloved his life must… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“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 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
“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
A kind of second childhood falls on so many men. They trade their violence for the promise of a small increase of… — 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 uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved.… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
A man may have lived all of his life in the gray, and the land and trees of him dark and somber.… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“She planted that terror of debt so deeply in her children that even now, in a changed economic pattern where indebtedness is… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
No one knows how greatness comes to a man. It may lie in his blackness, sleeping, or it may lance into him… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Only once or twice in her life had she ever understood all of him, but the part of him which she knew,… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“Ain't you thinkin' what's it gonna be like when we get there? Ain't you scared it won't be nice like we thought?… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“One day Samuel strained his back lifting a bale of hay, and it hurt his feelings more than his back, for he… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
Life cannot be cut off quickly. One cannot be dead until the things he changed are dead. His effect is the only… — 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
“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
“A kind of second childhood falls on so many men. They trade their violence for the promise of a small increase of… — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
“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 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
“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
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
It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him. — John Steinbeck Copy Share Image
We are lonesome animals. We spend all life trying to be less lonesome. — 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
Life could not change the sun or water the desert, so it changed itself. — 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
“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 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
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
