John Steinbeck idézet oldal 10

„Rettegjünk attól az időtől, amikor a bombák már nem hullanak, de a bombavetők még élnek, mert minden bomba annak a bizonysága, hogy a szellem még nem halt meg. Rettegjünk attól az időtől, amikor megszűnnek a sztrájkok, de élnek még a nagybirtokosok, mert minden levert kis sztrájk is bizonyítéka annak, hogy a lépés megtörtént. És rettegjünk attól az időtől, amikor az ember nem akar szenvedni és meghalni egy gondolatért, mert ez az egyetlen tulajdonság különbözteti meg az embert minden mástól a világegyetemben.”

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„Ha neki egymillió hold kell, hogy gazdagnak érezze magát, az bizonyára azért van, mert belül rettentően szegénynek érzi magát; ha pedig belül szegény, millió holdtól sem fogja magát gazdagnak érezni, s talán azért csalódott, mert ezt az érzést semmi sem szerezheti meg neki.”

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„A bérlő elgondolkozott: Furcsa dolog ez. Ha valakinek van egy kis birtoka, az a birtok ő maga, hozzá tartozik, olyan, mint ő. Ha csak olyan birtoka van, hogy járhat rajta, művelheti, szomorkodhatik, ha rossz a termés, örülhet az esőnek, akkor az a birtok ő maga, s maga is megnövekszik valahogy, amiért a birtok az övé. Még ha sikertelenül gazdálkodik, akkor is megnöveli a birtoka. Ez így van.
A bérlő tovább gondolkozott: De ha olyan birtoka van az embernek, amit nem lát, vagy nem ér rá, hogy a maga kezével művelje, vagy nem lehet ott, hogy járjon rajta, hát akkor a birtok az úr. Az ember nem teheti azt, amit akar, nem gondolhatja azt, amit akar. A birtok az úr, erősebb a gazdájánál. S a gazda kisebb lesz, nem nagyobb. Csak a birtok a nagy, ő pedig szolgája a birtokának. Ez is így van.”

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„Bármi, ami csak pénzbe kerül, olcsó.”

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„Talán mindenki ebben az egész átkozott világban fél egymástol.”

„Az igazságban több szépség van, még ha félelmetes szépség is.”

„A hatalom nem korrupt. A félelem az... a hatalom elvesztésétől való félelem.”

„Az ötletek olyanok, mint a nyulak. Szerzel egy párat, megtanulod kezelni őket, és hamarosan lesz belőlük egy tucat.”

„És a kis sikoltozó tény, amely az egész történelem során hangzik: Az elnyomás csak arra jó, hogy megerősítse és keményebbé gyúrja az elnyomottakat.”

„És most, hogy nem kell tökéletesnek lenned, jó is lehetsz.”

„Úgy gondolom, hogy egy erős nő erősebb lehet, mint egy férfi, különösen, ha véletlenül szerelem van a szívében. Úgy gondolom, hogy egy szerető nő elpusztíthatatlan.”

„Büszke vagy a fájdalmadra? Nagynak és tragikusnak tűnsz tőled? Nos, gondold át. Lehet, hogy csak a nagy színpadon játszol egy szerepet és magad vagy a közönség.”

„Számomra úgy tűnik, hogy ha neked vagy nekem kétféle gondolkodás vagy cselekvés közül kell választanunk, emlékeznünk kell a halálunkra és meg kell próbálnunk úgy élni, hogy halálunk ne okozzon örömet a világnak.”

„Gyakori tapasztalat, hogy egy probléma, amely nehéznek tűnik éjjel, reggelre megoldódik, miután az alvás bizottsága dolgozott rajta.”

„Az, hogy egyáltalán életben vagyunk, azt jelenti, hogy vannak sebhelyeink.”

„Egy szomorú lélek gyorsabban, sokkal gyorsabban megölhet, mint egy baktérium.”

„Elveszettnek születtem, és nem örülök, ha megtalálnak.”

„Ha megtanulnánk szeretni magunkat, akár csak egy kicsit is, talán a kegyetlenségünk és a dühünk is feloldódna.”

„Ahogy az néha megtörténik, egy pillanat megállapodott és lebegett, és sokkal tovább maradt, mint egy pillanat. És a hangok megálltak, és a mozgás is megállt egy pillanatnál sokkal, de sokkal többre.”

“The Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one. It’s as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy to prove whether he was good enough to get to California.”

John Steinbeck: Idézetek angolul

“We are no better than the animals; in fact in a lot of ways we aren't as good.”

Pt. 3
Travels With Charley: In Search of America (1962)

“One man was so mad at me that he ended his letter: “Beware. You will never get out of this world alive.””

John Steinbeck könyv The Log from the Sea of Cortez

Forrás: The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951), Chapter 9

“He doesn't belong to a race clever enough to split the atom but not clever enough to live at peace with itself.”

“The Mail I’ve Seen” Saturday Review (3 August 1956)

“Victor's unfortunate choice it was always to mis-see, to mis-hear, to misjudge. He read softness into her because of the softness of her voice, when she was only remembering. His was the self-centered chaos of childhood. All looks and thoughts, loves and hatreds, were directed at him. Softness was softness towards him, weakness was weakness in the face of his strength. He preheard answers and listened not. He was full-coloured and brilliant—all outside of him was pale.”

Pt. 4
Travels With Charley: In Search of America (1962)

“She envied Camille. Camille was a tramp, Mildred thought. And things were so much easier for a tramp. There was no conscience, no sense of loss, nothing but a wonderful, relaxed, stretching-cat selfishness. She could go to bed with anyone she wanted to and never see him again and have no feeling of loss or insecurity about it. That was the way Mildred thought it was with Camille. She wished she could be that way, and she knew she couldn't. Couldn't because of her mother. And the unbidden thought entered her mind—if her mother were only dead Mildred's life would be so much simpler. She could have a secret little place to live somewhere. Almost fiercely, she brushed the thought away. "What a foul thing to think," she said to herself ceremoniously. But it was a dream she often had.”

John Steinbeck könyv Burning Bright

Act One: The Circus
Burning Bright (1950)

“The President must be greater than anyone else, but not better than anyone else. We subject him and his family to close and constant scrutiny and denounce them for things that we ourselves do every day. A Presidential slip of the tongue, a slight error in judgment — social, political, or ethical — can raise a storm of protest. We give the President more work than a man can do, more responsibility than a man should take, more pressure than a man can bear. We abuse him often and rarely praise him. We wear him out, use him up, eat him up. And with all this, Americans have a love for the President that goes beyond loyalty or party nationality; he is ours, and we exercise the right to destroy him.”

John Steinbeck könyv The Wayward Bus

Forrás: The Wayward Bus (1947), Ch. 13. Mildred is the daughter of Elliot and Bernice Pritchard.

“When you argue with a child," she said warmly, "you give a good argument and the child says yah, yah! You understand him and he doesn't listen, so the child wins.”

John Steinbeck könyv America and Americans

America and Americans (1966)

“What a wonderful thing a woman is. I can admire what they do even if I don't understand why.”

John Steinbeck könyv Burning Bright

Mordeen to Victor in Act One: The Circus
Burning Bright (1950)

“It is a nice thing to be working and believing in my work again. I hope I can keep the drive. I only feel whole and well when it is this way.”

John Steinbeck könyv The Winter of Our Discontent

The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), unplaced by chapter

“He didn't believe in psychiatrists, he said. But actually he did believe in them, so much that he was afraid of them.”

Letter to Elizabeth Otis, once he had begun The Grapes of Wrath (1 June 1938)

“Good God, what a mess of draggle-tail impulses a man is — and a woman too, I guess.”

John Steinbeck könyv The Wayward Bus

Forrás: The Wayward Bus (1947), Ch. 13. "He" is Elliot Pritchard.

“There's something desirable about anything you're used to as opposed to something you're not.”

John Steinbeck könyv The Winter of Our Discontent

Forrás: The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), Part Two, Chapter XIV

“His guard was up now and he wasn't listening; he was only angry because here was a world he could not enter and so he had to disbelieve in its existence. He fell back on the world he knew.”

John Steinbeck könyv The Winter of Our Discontent

Forrás: The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), Part One, Chapter VIII

“Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals.”

John Steinbeck könyv Burning Bright

Act One: The Circus. "He" is Victor.
Burning Bright (1950)

“… we've got so many laws you can't breathe without breaking something.”

Quote magazine (18 June 1961)

“Her body and her mind were sluggish and lazy, and deep down she fought a tired envy of the people who, so she thought, experienced good things while she went through life a gray cloud in a gray room. Having few actual perceptions, she lived by rules. Education is good. Self-control is necessary. Everything in its time and place. Travel is broadening. And it was this last axiom which had forced her finally on the vacation to Mexico.”

John Steinbeck könyv The Winter of Our Discontent

Forrás: The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), Part Two, Chapter XIV

“For every man in the world functions to the best of his ability, and no one does less than his best, no matter what he may think about it.”

John Steinbeck könyv The Wayward Bus

About Bernice Pritchard in Ch. 5
The Wayward Bus (1947)

“I guess this is why I hate governments. It is always the rule, the fine print, carried out by the fine print men. There's nothing to fight, no wall to hammer with frustrated fists.”

John Steinbeck könyv The Pearl

Forrás: The Pearl (1947), Ch. IV

“All hell has broken loose. I admit our Russian is limited, but we can say hello, come in, you are beautiful, oh no you don't. … So in our pride we ordered for breakfast an omelet, toast and coffee and what has just arrived is a tomato salad with onions, a dish of pickles, a big slice of watermelon and two bottles of cream soda. Something has slipped badly.”

Pt. 2
Travels With Charley: In Search of America (1962)

“Not only the brave get killed, but the brave have a better chance of it.”

On difficulties while traveling in the USSR (20 August 1947), in Steinbeck : A Life in Letters (1976)

“The mountains of things we throw away are much greater than the things we use. In this, if in no other way, we can see the wild and reckless exuberance of our production, and waste seems to be the index.”

John Steinbeck könyv The Winter of Our Discontent

Forrás: The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), Part Two, Chapter XIV

“He brought his malformed wisdom, his pool-hall, locker-room, joke-book wisdom to the front.”

Pt. 2
Travels With Charley: In Search of America (1962)

“This monster of a land, this mightiest of nations, this spawn of the future, turns out to be the macrocosm of microcosm me.”

John Steinbeck könyv Burning Bright

Act One: The Circus. "He" is Victor.
Burning Bright (1950)

“If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy and sick.”

Pt. 3
Travels With Charley: In Search of America (1962)

“A kind of second childhood falls on so many men. They trade their violence for the promise of a small increase of life span. In effect, the head of the house becomes the youngest child. And I have searched myself for this possibility with a kind of horror. For I have always lived violently, drunk hugely, eaten too much or not at all, slept around the clock or missed two nights of sleeping, worked too hard and too long in glory, or slobbed for a time in utter laziness. I’ve lifted, pulled, chopped, climbed, made love with joy and taken my hangovers as a consequence, not as a punishment. I did not want to surrender fierceness for a small gain in yardage. My wife married a man; I saw no reason why she should inherit a baby.”

Letter to Adlai Stevenson (5 November 1959), quoted in The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer : A Biography (1984), by Jackson J. Benson, p. 876

“Mr. Pritchard was a businessman, president of a medium-sized corporation. He was never alone. His business was conducted by groups of men like himself who joined together in clubs so that no foreign element or idea could enter. His religious life was again his lodge and his church, both of which were screened and protected. One night a week he played poker with men so exactly like himself that the game was fairly even, and from this fact his group was convinced that they were very fine poker players. Wherever he went he was not one man but a unit in a corporation, a unit in a club, in a lodge, in a church, in a political party. His thoughts and ideas were never subjected to criticism since he willingly associated only with people like himself. He read a newspaper written by and for his group. The books that came into his house were chosen by a committee which deleted material that might irritate him. He hated foreign countries and foreigners because it was difficult to find his counterpart in them. He did not want to stand out from his group. He would like to have risen to the top of it and be admired by it; but it would not occur to him to leave it. At occasional stags where naked girls danced on the tables and sat in great glasses of wine, Mr. Pritchard howled with laughter and drank the wine, but five hundred Mr. Pritchards were there with him.”

Pt. 1
Travels With Charley: In Search of America (1962)

“Such is the prestige of the Nobel award and of this place where I stand that I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession and in the great and good men who have practiced it through the ages.”

John Steinbeck könyv The Wayward Bus

Forrás: The Wayward Bus (1947), Ch. 3