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John Steinbeck Quotes - Page 26

All Quotes Ambition Art Business Challenges Chaos Character Children Choices Confusion Country Criticism Design Desire Doubt Dying Earth Effort Evil Fate Fear Feelings Fighting Freedom Friendship Giving Gold Greatness Greed Guilt Hate Hatred Heart Heaven Hell Home Honesty Horror House Hunger Hurt Inspirational Journey Joy Kindness Laughter Life Literature Loneliness Loss Love Luck Lying Magic Mathematics Memories Morning Mountain Nature Obsession Pain Past Philosophy Pleasure Prayer Pride Quality Rain Reading Reality Responsibility Running Sadness Science Sickness Sin Singing Sleep Socialism Son Sorrow Soul Struggle Suffering Summer Teaching Travel Understanding Waiting Wall War Water Wife Winning Winter Worry Writing

Like most modern people, I don't believe in prophecy or magic and then spend half my time practicing it.

Like most modern people, I don't believe in prophecy or magic and then spend half my time practicing it.

Believe, People, Magic

John Steinbeck (2008). “The Winter of Our Discontent”, p.223, Penguin

Strength and success - they are above morality, above criticism. It seems, then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it. Is there a check in men, deep in them, that stops or punishes? There doesn't seem to be. The only punishment is for failure. In effect no crime is committed unless a criminal is caught.

Inspirational, Men, Criticism

John Steinbeck (2008). “The Winter of Our Discontent”, p.175, Penguin

Some days are born ugly. From the very first light they are no damn good what ever the weather, and everbody knows it. No one knows what causes this, but on such a day people resist getting out of bed and set their heels against the day. When they are finally forced out by hunger or job they find that the day is just as lousy as they knew it would be.

Jobs, Light, Weather

John Steinbeck (2008). “Sweet Thursday”, p.131, Penguin

It is my experience that in some areas [my poodle] Charley is more intelligent that I am, but in others he is abysmally ignorant. He can't read, can't drive a car, and has no grasp of mathematics. But in his own field of endeavor, which he is now practicing, the slow, imperial smelling over and anointing on an area, he has no peer. Of course his horizons are limited, but how wide are mine?

Friendship, Dog, Intelligent

No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe

Silence, Tree, Feelings

John Steinbeck (1980). “Travels with Charley in Search of America”, p.105, Penguin

A plan is a real thing, and things projected are experienced. A plan once made and visualized becomes reality along with other realities—never to be destroyed but easily to be attacked.

Real, Made, Plans

John Steinbeck (1994). “The Pearl”, p.40, Penguin

Some people there are who, being grown; forget the horrible task of learning to read. It is perhaps the greatest single effort that the human undertakes, and he must do it as a child.

Children, People, Effort

John Steinbeck (2008). “The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.10, Penguin

It was too nerve-wracking, a shocking spectacle, like seeing an old, calm friend go insane.

Insane, Nerves, Calm

John Steinbeck (1980). “Travels with Charley in Search of America”, p.92, Penguin

Thou mayest rule over sin.

Sin

John Steinbeck (2012). “The Portable Steinbeck”, p.728, Penguin

Texas is not a state - it's a state of mind.

Texas, Mind, States

You are not a man anymore. You are a soldier. Your comfort is of no importance and your life isn't of much importance. Most of your orders will be unpleasant, but that's not your business. They should've trained you for this, and not for flower-strewn streets. They should have built your soul with truth, not led along with lies.

Lying, Military, Flower

A kind of second childhood falls on so many men. They trade their violence for the promise of a small increase of life span. In effect, the head of the house becomes the youngest child.

Children, Fall, Men

John Steinbeck (1980). “Travels with Charley in Search of America”, p.15, Penguin

I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion.

Thinking, Texas, Mind

John Steinbeck (1980). “Travels with Charley in Search of America”, p.125, Penguin

Again it might have been the American tendency in travel. One goes, not so much to see but to tell afterward.

Might, Tendencies, Might Have Been

John Steinbeck (1980). “Travels with Charley in Search of America”, p.91, Penguin

What do I want in a doctor? Perhaps more than anything else-a friend with special knowledge.

Doctors, Special, Want

John Steinbeck (1989). “Steinbeck: A Life in Letters”, p.709, Penguin

He had an idea that even when beaten he could steal a little victory by laughing at defeat.

Ideas, Laughing, Victory

John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.173, Penguin

I believe there are techniques of the human mind whereby, in its dark deep, problems are examined, rejected or accepted. Such activities sometimes concern facets a man does not know he has. How often one goes to sleep troubled and full of pain, not knowing what causes the travail, and in the morning a whole new direction and a clearness is there, maybe the results of the black reasoning. And again there are mornings when ecstasy bubbles in the blood, and the stomach and chest are tight and electric with joy, and nothing in the thoughts to justify it or cause it.

Morning, Pain, Believe

John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.286, Penguin

It occurs to me that just as the Carthaginians hired mercenaries to do their fighting for them, we Americans being in mercenaries to do our hard and humble work. I hope we may not be overwhelmed one day by peoples not too proud or too lazy or too soft to bend to the earth and pick up the things we eat.

Humble, Fighting, Lazy

John Steinbeck (2007). “Travels with Charley and Later Novels, 1947-1962”

I guess this is why I hate governments, all governments. It is always the rule, the fine print, carried out by fine-print men. There's nothing to fight, no wall to hammer with frustrated fists.

Wall, Hate, Fighting

John Steinbeck (1980). “Travels with Charley in Search of America”, p.51, Penguin

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

Men, He Man, Conversation

John Steinbeck (2012). “The Portable Steinbeck”, p.735, Penguin

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 the cape work when the bull tries to kill something that isn't there? Remember how he gets confused and uneasy, sometimes just stands and looks for an answer? Well, then they have to give him a horse or his heart will break. He has to get his horns into something solid or his spirit dies. Well, I'm that horse. And that's the kind of men I get, confused and puzzled. If they can get a horn into me, that's a little triumph.

Horse, Confused, Heart

A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody.

Nuts, Guy, Crooks

John Steinbeck (2016). “Of Mice and Men”, p.35, Hamilton Books

But a man needs company.

Men, Needs, Company

John Steinbeck (2012). “The Portable Steinbeck”, p.438, Penguin

The people say that the two seemed to be removed from human experience; that they had gone through pain and had come out on the other side.

Pain, Two, People

John Steinbeck (1993). “The Pearl”, p.86, Penguin

He was born in Bercy on the outskirts of Paris and trained in France, and while he knows a little Poodle-English, he responds quickly only to commands in French. Otherwise he has to translate, and that slows him down.

Dog, Paris, Poodles

John Steinbeck (1980). “Travels with Charley in Search of America”, p.10, Penguin

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