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East of Eden

Book by John Steinbeck · 50 quotes · East Of Eden, Men, Ifs

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East of Eden Quotes

“You’re pretty full of yourself. You’re marveling at the tragic spectacle of Caleb Trask—Caleb the magnificent, the unique. Caleb whose suffering should have its Homer. Did you ever think of yourself as a snot-nose kid—mean sometimes, incredibly generous sometimes? Dirty in your habits, and curiously pure in your mind. Maybe you have a little more energy than most, just energy, but outside of that you’re very like all the other snot-nose kids.”

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“She planted that terror of debt so deeply in her children that even now, in a changed economic pattern where indebtedness is a part of living, I become restless when a bill is two days overdue. Olive never accepted the time-payment plan when it became popular. A thing bought on time was a thing you did not own and for which you were in debt. She saved for things she wanted, and this meant that the neighbours had new gadgets as much as two years before we did.”

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“Dear Lord," he said, "let me be like Aron. Don’t make me mean. I don’t want to be. If you will let everybody like me, why, I’ll give you anything in the world, and if I haven’t got it, why, I’ll go for to get it. I don’t want to be mean. I don’t want to be lonely. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.” Slow warm tears were running down his cheeks. His muscles were tight and he fought against making any crying sound or sniffle. Aron whispered from his pillow in the dark, "You're cold. You've got a chill." He stretched out his hand to Cal's arm and felt the goose bumps there. He asked softly, "Did Uncle Charles have any money?" "No," said Cal. "Well, you were out there long enough. What did Father want to talk about?" Cal lay still, trying to control his breathing. "Don't you want to tell me?" Aron asked. "I don't care if you don't tell me." "I'll tell," Cal whispered. He turned on his side so that his back was toward his brother. "Father is going to send a wreath to our mother. A great big goddam wreath of carnations." Aron half sat up in bed and asked excitedly, "He is? How's he going to get it clear there?" "On the train. Don't talk so loud." Aron dropped back to a whisper. "But how's it going to keep fresh?" "With ice," said Cal. "They're going to pack ice all around it." Aron asked, "Won't it take a lot of ice?" "A whole hell of a lot of ice," said Cal. "Go to sleep now." Aron was silent, and then he said, "I hope it gets there fresh and nice." "It will," said Cal. And in his mind he cried, "Don't let me be mean.”

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“Olive was way beyond hearing anything, but her chin was set and she was determined to help the pilot so that he would not be too afraid before they hit the earth. She smiled and nodded again. At the end of each stunt he looked back, and each time she encouraged him. Afterward he said over and over, "She's the goddamest woman I ever saw. I tore up the rule book and she wanted more. Good Christ, what a pilot she would have made!”

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“It's because I haven't courage,' said Samuel. 'I could never quite take the responsibility. When the Lord God did not call my name, I might have called his name - but I did not. There you have the difference between greatness and mediocrity. It's not an uncommon disease. But it's nice for a mediocre man to know that greatness must be the loneliest state in the world.' 'I'd think there are degrees of greatness,' Adam said. 'I don't think so,' said Samuel. 'That would be like saying there is a little bigness. No. I believe when you come to that responsibility the hugeness and you are alone to make your choice. On one side you have warmth and companionship and sweet understanding, and on the other - cold, lonely greatness. There you make your choice. I'm glad I chose mediocrity, but how am I to say what reward might have come with the other? None of my children will be great either, except perhaps Tom. He's suffering over the choosing right now. It's a painful thing to watch. And somewhere in me I want him to say yes. Isn't that strange? A father to want his son condemned to greatness! What selfishness that must be.”

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“Казват, чистата рана зараствала най- бързо. За мен няма нищо по- печално от връзки, които се поддържат единствено посредством лепилото на пощенските марки. Не можеш ли да виждаш, да чуваш, да се докосваш да един човек. най- добре забрави го!”

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“Thou mayest rule over sin,’ Lee. That’s it. I do not believe all men are destroyed. I can name you a dozen who were not, and they are the ones the world lived by. It is true of the spirit as it is true of battles—only the winners are remembered. Surely most men are destroyed, but there are others who like pillars of fire guide frightened men through the darkness. ‘Thou mayest, Thou Mayest!’ What glory! It is true that we are weak and sick and quarrelsome, but if that is all we ever were, we would, millenniums ago, have disappeared from the face of the earth. A few remnants of fossilized jawbone, some broken teeth in strata of limestone, would be the only mark man would have left of his existence in the world. But the choice, Lee, the choice of winning!”

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“Querido Pat: Viniste a verme mientras tallabas una figurilla en madera, y me dijiste: -¿ Por qué no me haces algo?- Te pregunté qué querías y respondiste: -Una caja-. -¿Para qué?- -Para poner cosas en ella-. -¿Que cosas?- -Todo lo que tengas-, dijiste. Bien, aquí tienes la caja que querías. He puesto en ella casi todo lo que yo tenía, y todavía no está llena. Hay en ella dolor y excitación, sentimientos buenos y malos, y malos pensamientos y buenos pensamientos..., el placer del constructor, algo de desesperación y el gozo indescriptible de la creación. Y todavía la caja no está colmada.”

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“I always found in myself a dread of west and love of east. Where I ever got such an idea I cannot say, unless it could be that morning came over the peaks of the Gabilans and the night drifted back from the ridges of the Santa Lucias. It may be that the birth and death of the day had some part in my feeling about the two ranges of mountains.”

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“It is argued that because they believed thoroughly in a just, moral God they could put there faith there and let the smaller insecurities take care of themselves. But I think that because they trusted themselves and respected themselves as individuals, because they knew beyond doubt that they were valuable and potential moral units- because of this they could give God their own courage and dignity and then receive it back. Such things have disappeared perhaps because men do not trust themselves anymore, and when that happens there is nothing left except perhaps to find some strong sure man, even though he may be wrong, and to dangle from his coat-tails.”

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“We all have that heritage, no matter what old land our fathers left. All colors and blends of Americans have somewhat the same tendencies. It's a breed - selected out by accident. And so we're overbrave and overfearful - we're kind and cruel as children. We're overfriendly and at the same time frightened of strangers. We boast and are impressed. We're oversentimental and realistic. We are mundane and materialistic - and do you know of any other nation that acts for ideals? We eat too much. We have no taste, no sense of proportion. We throw our energy about like waste. In the old lands they say of us that we go from barbarism to decadence without an intervening culture. Can it be that our critics have not the key or the language of our culture?”

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“—Fueron las dos palabras que usted tradujo, Lee: «Tú podrás». Me agarraron por el cuello y me sacudieron. Y cuando se me pasó el mareo, se abrió ante mí una nueva senda resplandeciente por la que mi casi agotada vida camina hacia un final maravilloso. Y mi música posee una nueva y última melodía, semejante al canto de un ruiseñor en la noche. (...) «Tú podrás gobernar el pecado», Lee. Eso es. Ya no creo que todos los hombres sean aniquilados. Puedo nombrarle una docena de ellos que ya no existen, pero gracias a los cuales el mundo vive. Con el alma pasa lo mismo que con las batallas: sólo los vencedores son recordados. Es cierto que la mayor parte de los hombres son aniquilados, pero hay otros que, como columnas de fuego, guían a la humanidad aterrorizada a través de las tinieblas. «¡Tú podrás, tú podrás!». ¡Qué gloria! Es cierto que somos débiles, dolientes y pendencieros, pero si sólo fuéramos eso, hubiéramos desaparecido de la faz de la tierra hace milenios. Sólo quedarían algunas mandíbulas fosilizadas, algunos dientes rotos entre las capas de caliza… Ésas serían las únicas señales que el hombre habría dejado como recuerdo de su paso por este mundo. ¡Pero la facultad de escoger, Lee, y la facultad de vencer! Yo jamás lo había entendido ni aceptado hasta ahora. ¿Comprende ya por qué esta noche le he dicho a Adam lo que le he dicho? Ejercía la facultad de escoger. Tal vez me he equivocado, pero al decírselo le he obligado a vivir y a salir del caparazón. ¿Cuál era la palabra, Lee? —Timshel —contestó Lee.”

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“While the churches, bringing the sweet smell of piety for the soul, came in prancing and farting like brewery horses in bock-beer time, the sister evangelism, with release and joy for the body, crept in silently and gravely, with its head bowed and its face covered. You may have seen the spangled palaces of sin and fancy dancing in the false West of the movies, and maybe some of them existed—but not in the Salinas Valley. The brothels were quiet, orderly, and circumspect. Indeed, if after hearing the ecstatic shrieks of climactic conversion against the thumping beat of the melodeon you had stood under the window of a whorehouse and listened to the low decorous voices, you would have been likely to confuse the identities of the two ministries. The brothel was accepted while it was not admitted.”

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“A new country seems to follow a pattern. First come the openers, strong and brave and rather childlike. They can take care of themselves in a wilderness, but they are naive and helpless against men, and perhaps that is why they went out in the first place. When the rough edges are worn off the new land, businessmen and lawyers come in to help with the development---to solve problems of ownership, usually by removing the temptations to themselves. And finally comes culture, which is entertainment, relaxation, transport out of the pain of living. And culture can be on any level, and is. The Church and the whorehouse arrived in the Far West simultaneously.”

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