John Steinbeck: Trending quotes

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John Steinbeck: 732 quotes33 likes

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

Source: Sweet Thursday

“They's times when how you feel got to be kep' to yourself.”

Source: The Grapes of Wrath

“I have lost all sense of home, having moved about so much. It means to me now--only that place where the books are kept.”

John Steinbeck

“He said, "I am a man," and that meant certain things to Juana. It meant that he was half insane and half god.”

John Steinbeck book The Pearl

Source: The Pearl (1947), Ch. V
Context: He had said, "I am a man," and that meant certain things to Juana. It meant that he was half insane and half god. It meant that Kino would drive his strength against a mountain and plunge his strength against the sea. Juana, in her woman's soul, knew that the mountain would stand while the man broke himself; that the sea would surge while the man drowned in it. And yet it was this thing that made him a man, half insane and half god, and Juana had need of a man; she could not live without a man. Although she might be puzzled by these differences between man and woman, she knew them and accepted them and needed them. Of course she would follow him, there was no question of that. Sometimes the quality of woman, the reason, the caution, the sense of preservation, could cut through Kino's manness and save them all.

“The bank - the monster has to have profits all the time. It can't wait. It'll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can't stay one size.”

John Steinbeck book The Grapes of Wrath

Source: The Grapes of Wrath

“If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.”

John Steinbeck

“Sometimes when she was alone, and she knew she was alone, she permitted her mind to play in a garden, and she smiled.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

“For there are two possible reactions to social ostracism - either a man emerges determined to be better, purer, and kindlier or he goes bad, challenges the world and does even worse things. The last is by far the commonest reaction to stigma.”

John Steinbeck book Cannery Row

Source: Cannery Row

“The final weapon is the brain, all else is supplemental.”