Quotessence
Home / Authors / John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenPeopleEast Of EdenIfsKnowsWorldThinkingWritingTravels With CharleyLittlesWayMindWantLiteratureDoeHumansKindWholeSeemsSteinbeck

Famous John Steinbeck Quotes

“When a child first catches adults out -- when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not always have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just -- his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child's world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing.”

ThinkingWorldFirstsKindChildrenLittlesWholeJobsFallWalksGoneGrowing UpWiseGrowingDivineJudgmentAdultsSafetyGreenShiningSentencesGravesFallenPanicCrashTediousDesolationSure Thing
Author:John Steinbeck
Create image

“I think bullfights are for men who aren't very brave and wish they were. If you saw one you'll know what I mean. Remember after all the cape work when the bull tries to kill something that isn't there? Remember how he gets confused and uneasy, sometimes just stands and looks for an answer? Well, then they have to give him a horse or his heart will break. He has to get his horns into something solid or his spirit dies. Well, I'm that horse. And that's the kind of men I get, confused and puzzled. If they can get a horn into me, that's a little triumph.”

IfsThinkingKnowsMenGivingTryingWellsLooksHeartKindMeanLittlesSometimesRememberSpiritDiesWishAnswersBreakSawsHorseBraveTriumphConfusedBullsHornsUneasyPuzzledCapes
Author:John Steinbeck
Create image

“Look now — in all of history men have been taught that killing of men is an evil thing not to be countenanced. Any man who kills must be destroyed because this is a great sin, maybe the worst sin we know. And then we take a soldier and put murder in his hands and we say to him, 'Use it well, use it wisely.' We put no checks on him. Go out and kill as many of a certain kind or classification of your brothers as you can. And we will reward you for it because it is a violation of your early training.”

KnowsMenWellsLooksKindHas BeensUseHandsCertainEvilSinWorstTaughtBrotherTrainingMurderRewardsKillingSoldierChecksDestroyedViolationYour BrotherClassificationEvil Things
Author:John Steinbeck
Create image

“There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you — of kindness and consideration and respect — not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.”

KnowsFirstsKindMeanPersonsSelfUseSocialKindnessGreaterGoodnessUniqueLettersWeakSickImportanceUglyValuableSelfishReleaseRecognitionMannersConsiderationGraspingEgotisticalKinds Of LoveSelf-importance
Author:John Steinbeck
Create image

“I remember as a child reading or hearing the words 'The Great Divide' and being stunned by the glorious sound, a proper sound for the granite backbone of a continent. I saw in my mind escarpments rising into the clouds, a kind of natural Great Wall of China.”

MindKindChildrenRememberReadingSoundNaturalSawsWallCloudsChinaHearingGloriousRisingDividesContinentsGeographyBackboneStunnedGraniteChildren ReadingGreat WallGreat Wall Of China
Book:Travels with Charley in Search of America
Create image