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A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean question: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well - or ill?
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
Life
Left
Chips
Character
Ill
Wells
Dust
Well
Integrity
Done
Clean
Hard
Honor
Brushed
Good
Question
Eden
Men
Evil
Avarice
More quotes by John Steinbeck
There is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little they crash and shatter.
John Steinbeck
In literary criticism the critic has no choice but to make over the victim of his attention into something the size and shape of himself.
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I guess I'm trying to say, Grab anything that goes by. It may not come around again.
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it was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials.
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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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There is nothing pleasanter than spading when the ground is soft and damp.
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But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey. There's no godliness there.
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Like most modern people, I don't believe in prophecy or magic and then spend half my time practicing it.
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There's nothing in the world like that first taste of beer.
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Death was a friend, and sleep was Death's brother.
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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.
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A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.
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Man is the only kind of varmint sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it.
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It was deeply a part of Lee's kindness and understanding that man's right to kill himself is inviolable, but sometimes a friend can make it unnecessary
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She wasn't happy, but then she wasn't unhappy. She wasn't anything. But I don't believe anyone is a nothing. There has to be something inside, if only to keep the skin from collapsing. This vacant eye, listless hand, this damask cheek dusted like a doughnut with plastic powder, had to have a memory or a dream.
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Must the hunger become anger and the anger fury before anything will be done?
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Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there.
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My own journey started long before I left, and was over before I returned.
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What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.
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You've seen the sun flatten and take strange shapes just before it sinks in the ocean. Do you have to tell yourself every time that it's an illusion caused by atmospheric dust and light distorted by the sea, or do you simply enjoy the beauty of it?
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