“For man, unlike anything organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.”

Source: The Grapes of Wrath (1939)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "For man, unlike anything organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concep…" by John Steinbeck?
John Steinbeck photo
John Steinbeck 366
American writer 1902–1968

Related quotes

Fritjof Capra photo
William Julius Mickle photo

“His very foot has music in't
As he comes up the stairs”

William Julius Mickle (1734–1788) British writer

St. 5
The Mariner's Wife (1769)
Context: Sae true's his words, sae smooth's his speech,
His breath like caller air,
His very foot has music in't
As he comes up the stairs:
And will I see his face again!
And will I hear him speak!

Henry Ward Beecher photo
Edward Young photo

“Because of his capacity for abstract communications and language and his ability to enter in imagination into the lives of others, man is able to build organizations of a size and complexity far beyond those of the lower animals.”

Kenneth E. Boulding (1910–1993) British-American economist

Source: 1950s, The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society, 1956, p. 26 quoted in: Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations - Volume 1 (1999). p. 159

“Our commonest man, emulating his superiors, forges ahead with a brick on the safety valve of his conscience.”

Philip Wylie (1902–1971) American writer

Source: Generation of Vipers (1942), p. 104
Context: Few men, indeed, are so mad that they do not know when they are doing wrong. But so avid is their pursuit of goods that wrongdoing has become an element of all they do. To protest that fact is idle. Our politics, our business — little and big, our professions, our labor, are smitten in every facet with a corruption occasioned by reckless determination to make not just a reasonable profit but all the profit that can be wrung from every enterprise. Our commonest man, emulating his superiors, forges ahead with a brick on the safety valve of his conscience. Think over your morning paper in that light.

Joaquin Miller photo
Sören Kierkegaard photo

“If the genius is an artist, then he accomplishes his work as art, but neither he nor his work of art has a telos outside him.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Source: 1840s, Two Ethical-Religious Minor Essays (1849), P. 108

Related topics