John Steinbeck ✓

(1902–1968) novelist United States

592 quotes in 5703 categories

[Wikidata] American writer (1902–1968)... | [Wikipedia] John Ernst Steinbeck was an American writer and novelist. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception". He has been called "a giant of American letters". One of the most widely read authors o

All John Steinbeck Quotes

• I think bullfights are for men who aren't very brave and wish they were. If you saw one you'll know what I mean. Remember after… All
• You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself. Empathy
• It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it. Believe
• I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen. All
• It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone. Absence
• Men seem to be born with a debt they can never pay no matter how hard they try. Born
• A man without words is a man without thought. Inspirational
• But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is… Always Attacked
• I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving… Believe
• But I think that because they trusted themselves and respected themselves as individuals, because they knew beyond doubt that they were valuable and potentially moral… Anymore
• It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him. Business
• To the heavens on the wings of a pig. Heaven
• Men don't get knocked out, or I mean they can fight back against big things. What kills them is erosion; they get nudged into failure.… Big
• There's an awful lot of inactive kindness which is nothing but laziness, not wanting any trouble, confusion, or effort. Any
• I shall revenge myself in the cruelest way you can imagine. I shall forget it. Cruelest
• What a frightening thing is the human, a mass of gauges and dials and registers, and we can only read a few and those perhaps… Accurately
• There's something desirable about anything you're used to as opposed to something you're not. Desirable
• ...intentions, good or bad, are not enough. There's luck or fate or something else that takes over... Bad
• Nobody changes. Nobody gets hurt. Changes
• When a condition or a problem becomes too great, humans have the protection of not thinking about it. But it goes inward and minces up… All
• I guess I'm trying to say, Grab anything that goes by. It may not come around again. Come Around
• Can you honestly love a dishonest thing? Dishonest
• People who are most afraid of their dreams convince themselves they don't dream at all. Afraid
• We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to… All
• All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal. All

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