John Steinbeck Quotes about Pain

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Nearly everyone has his box of secret pain.

Nearly everyone has his box of secret pain.

John Steinbeck

Pain, Secret, Boxes

John Steinbeck (1952). “East of Eden”

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 slow, eating agony of a lie is never lost.

John Steinbeck

Pain, Kindness, Lying

John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.376, Penguin

One can find so many pains when the rain is falling.

John Steinbeck

Pain, Rain, Fall

John Steinbeck (2001). “A Life in Letters”, p.1186, Penguin UK

I have taken as much as six years to prepare a book for writing. There is such a delirium of effort in the production of a book; it's like childbirth. And, like childbirth, one forgets the pains immediately so that when you come to write another one you dare to take it up again. Some precious anesthesia sees you through.

John Steinbeck

Pain, Book, Taken

John Steinbeck, Thomas Fensch (1988). “Conversations with John Steinbeck”, p.88, Univ. Press of Mississippi

No one knows how greatness comes to a man. It may lie in his blackness, sleeping, or it may lance into him like those driven fiery particles from outer space. These things, however, are known about greatness: need gives it life and puts it in action; it never comes without pain; it leaves a man changed, chastened, and exalted at the same time--he can never return to simplicity.

John Steinbeck

Pain, Lying, Sleep

John Steinbeck (2008). “Sweet Thursday”, p.316, Penguin

And finally comes culture, which is entertainment, relaxation, transport out of the pain of living.

John Steinbeck

Pain, Relaxation, Culture

John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.190, Penguin

for how can you remember the feel of pleasure or pain or choking emotion? You can remember only that you had them.

John Steinbeck

Pain, Emotion, Remember

John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.113, Penguin

I have starved and it isn't nearly as bad as is generally supposed. Four days and a half was my longest stretch. Maybe there are pains that come later. Personally I think terror is the painful part of starvation.

John Steinbeck

Pain, Thinking, Half

(Suicide) takes some doing, with maybe pain and maybe hell.

John Steinbeck

Suicide, Pain, Hell

John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.359, 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.

John Steinbeck

Morning, Pain, Believe

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