John Steinbeck: Trending quotes (page 11)

“It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.”

“You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. You see what is, where most people see what they expect.”

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

“It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There's a punishment for it and it's usually crucifixion.”

“Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars.”

“You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous.”

“It was deeply a part of Lee's kindness and understanding that man's right to kill himself is inviolable, but sometimes a friend can make it unnecessary”

“Riches seem to come to the poor in spirit, the poor in interest and joy. To put it straight - the very rich are a poor bunch of bastards”

“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.”

“You know most people live ninety per cent in the past, seven per cent in the present, and that only leaves them three per cent for the future.”

“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 of the beam flies shot like rushing stars.”

“A man with a beard was always a little suspect anyway. You couldn't say you wore a beard because you liked a beard. People didn't like you for telling the truth. You had to say you had a scar so you couldn't shave.”

“Life passes by in a wink so try to never miss a moment of it.”

“Says he foun' he jus' got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain't no good, 'cause his little piece of a soul wasn't no good 'less it was with the rest, an' was whole.”

“Only God sees the sparrow fall, but even God doesn't do anything about it.”

“He can kill anything for need but he could not even hurt a feeling for pleasure.”

“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. They get slowly scared. […]It's slow. It rots out your guts.”

“I am a little man and this is a little town, but there must be a spark in little men that can burst into flame.”

“He drank too much when he could get it, ate too much when it was there, talked too much all the time.”