“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…”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: kindness, Honesty, Success, Greed
“A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Sadness, Death, sickness
“I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is indestructible.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Women, Men, Love, strength
“Man has a choice and it's a choice that makes him a man.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Choices, humanity, Men
“There's more beauty in truth, even if it is dreadful beauty.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: beauty, Truth, Lies
“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Journey, Control, Life
“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, amazon.comTagged: humanity, skills, Abilities
“Being at ease with himself put him at ease with the world.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Self-Love, Acceptance, Life
“It’s a hard thing to leave any deeply routine life, even if you hate it.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Routine, Change, Hate
“It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Angels, devil, Good, Evil
“You got a God. Don't make no difference if you don't know what he looks like.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: God, Religion, Beliefs
“As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Moments, Time
“Maybe everybody in the whole damn world is scared of each other.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: humanity, Fear, Hate
“We know what we got, and we don't care whether you know it or not.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Gratitude, Opinions
“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. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social cha…”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Hate, Love, Friendship, Understanding
“There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Sin, Virtue, humanity, Evil
“Up ahead they's a thousand lives we might live, but when it comes it'll only be one.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Choices, Life, opportunities
“How can we live without our lives? How will we know it's us without our past?”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Past, Memories, Time
“The quality of owning freezes you forever in 'I,' and cuts you off forever from the 'we'”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Possession, Selfish, individuals, Teams
“Muscles aching to work, minds aching to create - this is man.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: humanity, Work, Create, Life
“If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an' maybe he's disappointed that nothin' he can do will make him feel rich.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: rich, poor, property, Disappointment
“It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It’s the monster. Men made it, but they can’t control it.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: banks, Money, finances
“Fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Death, Sacrifice, Suffering, Fear
“Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, and emerges ahead of his accomplishments.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: humanity, Growth, accomplishments
“Perhaps the less we have, the more we are required to brag.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: bragging, poor, rich
“For it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more. And this is said in disparagement, whereas it is one of the greatest talents the species has and one that has made it superior to animals that are satisfied with what they have.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: humanity, Satisfaction, superior, Animals
“It was deeply a part of Lee's kindness and understanding that man's right to kill himself is inviolable, but sometimes a friend can make it unnecessary”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: kindness, Friendship, Suicide, Death
“A guy needs somebody―to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick.”— John Steinbeck, amazon.comTagged: Friendship, Lonely, humanity