John Steinbeck Quotes
Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.
John Steinbeck
Quotes to Explore
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The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.
John Steinbeck
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'I'm sorry,' Ethan said. 'You have taught me something - maybe three things, rabbit footling mine. Three things will never be believed - the true, the probable, and the logical. I know now where to get the money to start my fortune.'
John Steinbeck
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A book is like a man - clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.
John Steinbeck
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When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you got two new people. Maybe that means - hell, it's complicated.
John Steinbeck
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When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find himself a good and sufficient reason for going.
John Steinbeck
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Sometimes it's great fun to be silly, like children playing statues and dying of laughter. And sometimes being silly breaks the even pace and lets you get a new start.
John Steinbeck
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They come, an' they quit an' go on; an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever'body wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head.
John Steinbeck
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If lowborn men could stand up to those born to rule, religion, government, the whole world would fall to pieces...Merlin replies...So it would; so it will ... then the pieces will be put together again by such as destroyed it.
John Steinbeck
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It is odd how a man believes he can think better in a special place. I have such a place, have always had it, but I know it isn't thinking I do there, but feeling and experiencing and remembering. It's a safety place - everyone must have one, although I have never heard of a man tell of it.
John Steinbeck
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I am a dog.
John Steinbeck
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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
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Good God, what a mess of draggle-tail impulses a man is - and a woman too, I guess.
John Steinbeck
