Famous John Steinbeck Quotations

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"I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything."
by John Steinbeck
"If you're in trouble, or hurt or need -- go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help -- the only ones."
by John Steinbeck
"After the bare requisites of living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he has really existed. He leaves his proof on wood, on stone, or on the lives of other people. This deep desire exists in everyone, from the boy who scribbles on a wall to the Buddha who etches his image in the race mind. Life is so unreal. I think that we seriously doubt that we exist and go about trying to prove that we do."
by John Steinbeck
"American cities are like badger holes ringed with trash"
by John Steinbeck
"Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars."
by John Steinbeck
"Got a lot of sinful ideas. But they seem kinda sensible."
by John Steinbeck
"He is so stupid you can't trust him with an idea."
by John Steinbeck
"I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit."
by John Steinbeck
"I have named the destroyers of nations: comfort, plenty, and security - out of which grow a bored and slothful cynicism, in which rebellion against the world as it is, and myself as I am, are submerged in listless self-satisfaction"
by John Steinbeck
"I know three things will never be believed-the true, the probable, and the logical."
by John Steinbeck
"I know this--a man got to do what he got to do."
by John Steinbeck
"I know this -- a man got to do what he got to do."
by John Steinbeck
"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."
by John Steinbeck
"In every bit of honest writing in the world, there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love."
by John Steinbeck
"In the hearts and minds of the people, the grapes of wrath were growing heavy for the vintage."
by John Steinbeck
"It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thoughts or action we should remember our dying and try so to live, that our death brings no pleasure on the world."
by John Steinbeck
"It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them."
by John Steinbeck
"Lord, how the day passes! It's like a life--so quickly when we don't watch it, and so slowly if we do."
by John Steinbeck East of Eden
"Lord, how the day passes It's like a life--so quickly when we don't watch it and so slowly if we do."
by John Ernst Steinbeck
"Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased."
by John Steinbeck
"Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments."
by John Steinbeck
"Money does not change the sickness, only the symptoms."
by John Steinbeck
"Most people live ninety percent in the past, seven percent in the present, and that only leaves three percent for the future."
by John Steinbeck
"No one is more carnal than a recent virgin"
by John Steinbeck
"No one wants advice -- only corroboration."
by John Steinbeck
"One man was so mad at me that he ended his letter Beware. You will never get out of this world alive."
by John Ernst Steinbeck
"Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power."
by John Steinbeck
"Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts, perhaps the fear of a loss of power."
by John Ernst Steinbeck
"Somewhere in the world there is defeat for everyone. Some are destroyed by defeat, and some made small and mean by victory. Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat add victory."
by John Steinbeck
"The fields were fruitful and starving men moved on the roads. The granaries were full and the children of the poor grew up rachitic."
by John Steinbeck
"There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain't nice, but that's as far as any man got a right to say."
by John Ernst Steinbeck
"We find that after years of struggle we do not take a journey, but rather a journey takes us."
by John Steinbeck
"When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence, and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and dying a cold horror. It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world."
by John Steinbeck
"I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts."
by John Steinbeck
"When the time for recognition of service to the nation in wartime comes to be considered, Bob Hope should be high on the list. This man drives himself and is driven. It is impossible to see how he can do so much, can cover so much ground, can work so hard, and can be so effective. He works month after month at a pace that would kill most people."
by John Steinbeck
"A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it."
by John Steinbeck
"Texas is not a state -- it's a state of mind."
by John Steinbeck
"The new American finds his challenge and his love in the traffic-choked streets, skies nested in smog, choking with the acids of industry, the screech of rubber and houses leashed in against one another while the town lets wither a time and die."
by John Steinbeck
"It has always seemed strange to me...The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success."
by John Steinbeck
"Time is the only critic without ambition."
by John Steinbeck
"The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. The sword is more important than the shield and skill is more important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental."
by John Steinbeck


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