Quote

This you may say of man - when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes. Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back.

John Steinbeck

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John Steinbeck
Age: 66 †
Born: 1902
Born: February 27
Died: 1968
Died: December 20
Author
Novelist
Screenwriter
War Correspondent
Writer
Salinas
California
John Ernst Steinbeck
Jr.
John Ernst Steinbeck
John Ernest Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck Jr
Steinbeck
Sometimes
Dark
Step
Reaches
Disintegrate
Never
Religious
Theory
Theories
Stumbles
Men
Half
Steps
Slips
Mistakenly
Thought
Grow
Crash
Philosophies
School
Philosophy
Narrow
Painfully
Change
Full
Schools
Alleys
May
Economic
National
Stepped
Back
Grows
Forward
Slip

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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.
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Writing to me is a deeply personal, even a secret function and when the product I turned loose it is cut off from me and I have no sense of its being mine. Consequently criticism doesn't mean anything to me. As a disciplinary matter, it is too late.
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And finally comes culture, which is entertainment, relaxation, transport out of the pain of living.
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There's a responsibility in being a person. It's more than just taking up space where air would be.
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I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog.
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I guess there are never enough books.
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The words are meaningless except in terms of feeling. Does anyone act as the result of thought or does feeling stimulate action and sometimes thought implement it.
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When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find himself a good and sufficient reason for going.
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Kino heard the little splash of morning waves on the beach. It was very good -- Kino closed his eyes again to listen to his music.
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Oh, we can populate the dark with horrors, even we who think ourselves informed and sure, believing nothing we cannot measure or weigh. I know beyond all doubt that the dark things crowding in on me either did not exist or were not dangerous to me, and still I was afraid.
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for how can you remember the feel of pleasure or pain or choking emotion? You can remember only that you had them.
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Failure is a state of mind. It's like one of those sand traps an ant lion digs. You keep sliding back. Takes one hell of a jump to get out of it.
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And then we take a soldier and put murder in his hands and we say to him, Use it well, use it wisely.
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I've lived in good climate, and it bores the hell out of me. I like weather rather than climate.
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I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents.... The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul?
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I think of my life as a kind of music, not always good music but still having form and melody.
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When you know a friend is there you do not go to see him. Then he's gone and you blast your conscience to shreds that you did not see him.
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If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen. And here I make a rule—a great and interesting story is about everyone or it will not last.
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I have wondered why is it that some people are less affected and torn by the verities of life and death that others.
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