“They're a dark people with a gift for suffering way past their deserving. It's said that without whiskey to soak and soften the world, they'd kill themselves. (Irish)”
Source: East of Eden
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John Steinbeck 366
American writer 1902–1968Related quotes

"Reunion in Brooklyn" http://books.google.com/books?id=uzz94pR0VQsC&q=%22To+live+without+killing+is+a+thought+which+could+electrify+the+world+if+men+were+only+capable+of+staying+awake+long+enough+to+let+the+idea+soak+in%22&pg=PA131#v=onepage, Sunday After the War (1944)

“When a gift is deserved, it is not a gift but a payment.”
Source: Shadow & Claw

Vol. I, Ch. 25, Section 4(f), pg. 774.
(Buch I) (1867)