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A strange species we are, We can stand anything God and nature can throw at us save only plenty. If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much, and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy, sick. --John Steinbeck to Adlai Stevenson

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
Give
Save
Stevenson
Anything
Species
Greedy
Wanted
Sick
Knees
Giving
Nation
Miserable
Much
Strange
Plenty
Would
Stand
John
Nations
Throw
Nature
Destroy
Steinbeck

More quotes by John Steinbeck

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A journey is a person in itself no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip a trip takes us.
John Steinbeck
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American cities are like badger holes, ringed with trash--all of them--surrounded by piles of wrecked and rusting automobiles, and almost smothered in rubbish. Everything we use comes in boxes, cartons, bins, the so-called packaging we love so much. The mountain of things we throw away are much greater than the things we use.
John Steinbeck
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A good writer always works at the impossible.
John Steinbeck
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The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement brings on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms and the churn of stomach high up under the rib cage.
John Steinbeck
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Only God sees the sparrow fall, but even God doesn't do anything about it.
John Steinbeck
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I know three things will never be believed - the true, the probable, and the logical
John Steinbeck
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Humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion.
John Steinbeck
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Misfortune is a fact of nature acceptable to women, especially when it falls on other women.
John Steinbeck
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The last clear definite function of man — muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need — this is man.
John Steinbeck
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The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.
John Steinbeck
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He had an idea that even when beaten he could steal a little victory by laughing at defeat.
John Steinbeck
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A little hope, even hopeless hope, never hurt anybody.
John Steinbeck
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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.
John Steinbeck
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A stilted heron labored up into the air and pounded down the river.
John Steinbeck
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A book is somehow sacred. A dictator can kill and maim people, can sink to any kind of tyranny and only be hated, but when books are burned the ultimate in tyranny has happened. This we cannot forgive.
John Steinbeck
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The study of history, while it does not endow with prophecy, may indicate lines of probability.
John Steinbeck
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Men really need sea-monsters in their personal oceans. An ocean without its unnamed monsters would be like a completely dreamless sleep.
John Steinbeck
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And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man.
John Steinbeck
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Some people there are who, being grown forget the horrible task of learning to read. It is perhaps the greatest single effort that the human undertakes, and he must do it as a child.
John Steinbeck
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And finally comes culture, which is entertainment, relaxation, transport out of the pain of living.
John Steinbeck