Quote

The last clear definite function of men—muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need—this is man.

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
Clear
Aching
Lasts
Definite
Last
Muscles
Need
Minds
Needs
Function
Work
Beyond
Mind
Single
Men
Create

More quotes by John Steinbeck

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Give me a used Bible and I will, I think, be able to tell you about a man by the places that are edged with the dirt of seeking fingers.
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There is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little they crash and shatter.
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Strength and success they are above morality, above criticism. It seems then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it.
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The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.
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I know people who are so immersed in road maps that they never see the countryside they pass through, and others who, having traced a route, are held to it as though held by flanged wheels to rails.
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I don’t mind getting smacked on the chin. I just don’t want to get nibbled to death. There’s a difference.
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It is the nature of a person as he/she grows older to protest against change, particularly changes for the better.
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she knew she could help him best by being silent and by being near
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We can shoot rockets into space but we can't cure anger or discontent.
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Eventlessness has no posts to drape duration on. From nothing to nothing is no time at all.
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If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an' maybe he's disappointed that nothin' he can do 'll make him feel rich.
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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.
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New York is a wonderful city... It is going to be the capital of the world.
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But you can't start. Only a baby can start. You and me - why, we're all that's been. The anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that's us. This land, this red land, is us and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us. We can't start again.
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I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession.
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Boileau said that Kings, Gods and Heroes only were fit subjects for literature. The writer can only write about what he admires. Present-day kings aren't very inspiring, the gods are on a vacation and about the only heroes left are the scientists and the poor.
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Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page a day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.
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I can still tend the rabbits, George? I didn't mean no harm, George.
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Humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion.
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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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