John Steinbeck Quotes
It is strange 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 never heard a man tell of it.
Quotes to Explore
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If I get involved in a charity, I really want to be a part of it. I don't want to just put my name on your pamphlet.
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The sole ultimate factor in human decisions is physical force. This we must learn, however repugnant the idea may seem, if we are to protect ourselves and our institutions. Reliance on anything else is fallacious and ruinous.
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It seems to me that trying to live without friends is like milking a bear to get cream for your morning coffee. It is a whole lot of trouble, and then not worth much after you get it.
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No writer need feel sorry for himself if he writes and enjoys it, even if he doesn't get paid.
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Other families who are poor do what they can to get out of it. My mother did not. She did not utilise her resources. She had a degree. There was something she could have done, but she actively, purposely refused that so we could have this absolutely authentic experience of the worst of capitalism: 'See? Look how bad capitalism is.'
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It lies in human nature that where you experience your first laughs, you also remember the age kindly.
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Society becomes how we behave.
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I don't know what the instinct is, to save every report card, every half-sentence scribbled note, but my mother did it pretty effectively, and I've done it to a fare-thee-well.
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Here in France, I've seen some very good young designers, but they don't have this ability to be good businessmen, too. I think America gives you this.
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The big tragedy in baseball is that the amateur spirit has gone out of it to a large extent.
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You don't implement change easily in Japan unless you explain very clearly why you need to do this change, how you're going to do this change and what's going to be the outcome of this change. If you offset or you forget to explain one of these three steps you're not going to do it.
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Fear and its accompanying emotional reactions have become part of the public mindset. Such reactions, while often legitimate, are also being exploited with increasing frequency for political ends.
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It's always interesting about God because it's like all of the religions in the world say that they pray to the same God, and yet they ask that same one God to divide itself up and agree with this one and fight against that one.
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If the artists would just keep hammering away - unify, stick together - then music will become the king again, which is what it should be.
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Reason cannot calm the storm of emotion, and emotion usually wins, until it settles down and allows reason to rise again and apologize on behalf of it.
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When I wake up in a bad mood, I try not to stay in one. Learn to make the best of what you have.
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There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.
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Great events make me quiet and calm; it is only trifles that irritate my nerves.
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I do not know its name. I call it the Way. For the lack of better words I call it great.
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You know, an hour and fifty-four minutes is too much for audiences. They get nervous.
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I don't believe that a writer 'gets' (takes into the head) an 'idea' (some sort of mental object) 'from' somewhere, and then turns it into words, and writes them on paper. At least in my experience, it doesn't work that way. The stuff has to be transformed into oneself, it has to be composted, before it can grow into a story.
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Religion struck me so vague a thing at best, that I could perceive no advantage of any one system over any other.
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It is strange 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 never heard a man tell of it.
