They say, it is very easy to make people cry but very difficult to make them smile. There have been abundant of writers who have made their readers emotional with their content but only a handful who have chuckled the deepest and hidden laughter from within. And John Steinbeck is one amongst them. A master in his own rights, Steinbeck’s works is a part of the American literary cannon. His comic novels ‘Tortilla Flat’, ‘Cannery Row’, ‘East of Eden’, ‘Mice and Men’ and ‘The Red Pony’ are considered legendary work in comic fiction today. Though Steinbeck gained popularity in most of his works, his best bit or the magnum opus of his career came with the novel, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’. It earned him the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. In his lifetime, John Steinbeck wrote more than twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books, and five collections of short stories. In 1962, Steinbeck was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature. Over the years, he earned the reputation of ‘a giant of American letters’. His works are widely read abroad and many of his works are considered classics of Western literature. Just as his works that frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, the same is seen in his quotes that stress a lot on life values and social themes. Explore this section and find out some of the best quotes by John Steinbeck.
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 almost always leads to love.
Do you take pride in your hurt? Does it make you seem large and tragic? ...Well, think about it. Maybe you're playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience.
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.
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
People like you to be something, preferably what they are.
People who are most afraid of their dreams convince themselves they don't dream at all.
John Steinbeck
But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed - because 'Thou mayest.
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.
It was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials.
John Steinbeck
An unbelieved truth can hurt a man much more than a lie. It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There's a punishment for it, and it's usually crucifixion.
John Steinbeck
A man without words is a man without thought.
John Steinbeck
When a man says he does not want to speak of something he usually means he can think of nothing else.
We value virtue but do not discuss it. The honest bookkeeper, the faithful wife, the earnest scholar get little of our attention compared to the embezzler, the tramp, the cheat.
John Steinbeck
A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you
control it.
Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.
John Steinbeck
Guy don't need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus' works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain't hardly ever a nice fella.
Maybe-- maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure-- never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself?
And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.
It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it.
John Steinbeck
Don't you love Jesus?' Well, I thought an' I thought an' finally I says, 'No, I don't know nobody name' Jesus. I know a bunch of stories, but I only love people.
Muscles aching to work, minds aching to create - this is man.
John Steinbeck
How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can't scare him--he has known a fear beyond every other.
I’m in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection. But with Montana it is love. And it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it.
They're a dark people with a gift for suffering way past their deserving. It's said that without whiskey to soak and soften the world, they'd kill themselves. (Irish)
Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.
But you must give him some sign, some sign that you love him... or he'll never be a man. All his life he'll feel guilty and alone unless you release him.
Somewhere in the world there is a 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 and victory.
John Steinbeck
For the most part people are not curious except about themselves.
John Steinbeck
We know what we got, and we don't care whether you know it or not.
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