Quotes from book

East of Eden

“All of them had a restlessness in common.”

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

“Man has a choice and it's a choice that makes him a man.”

“Eventlessness has no posts to drape duration on. From nothing to nothing is no time at all.”

“I think I love you, Cal." -Abra
I'm not good." -Cal
Because you're not good." -Abra”

“It’s a hard thing to leave any deeply routine life, even if you hate it.”

“Lord, how the day passes! It's like a life - so quickly when we don't watch it and so slowly when we do.”

“These too are of a burning color--not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the poppies.”

“An unbelieved truth can hurt a man much more than a lie. It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There's a punishment for it, and it's usually crucifixion.”

“To a man born without conscience, a soul-stricken man must seem ridiculous. To a criminal, honesty is foolish. You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous.”

“But 'Thou mayest!'! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win”

“When you're a child you're the center of everything. Everything happens for you. Other people? They're only ghosts furnished for you to talk to.”

“This is not theology. I have no bent towards gods. But i have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed - because 'Thou mayest.”

“.. it's awful not to be loved. It's the worst thing in the world… It makes you mean, and violent, and cruel.”

“Perhaps the best conversationalist in the world is the man who helps others to talk.”

“It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them.”

“Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids.”

“No story has power, nor will it last, unless we feel in ourselves that it is true and true of us.”

“Perhaps the less we have, the more we are required to brag.”