Quote

I have named the destroyers of nations: comfort, plenty, and security - out of which grow a bored and slothful cynicism, in which rebellion against the world as it is, and myself as I am, are submerged in listless self-satisfaction.

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
Grows
Named
Nations
Rebellion
Listless
Self
Bored
Slothful
World
Plenty
Submerged
Satisfaction
Destroyers
Comfort
Sloth
Grow
Apathy
Security
Cynicism

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Time is more complex near the sea than in any other place, for in addition to the circling of the sun and the turning of the seasons, the waves beat out the passage of time on the rocks and the tides rise and fall as a great clepsydra.
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One man was so mad at me that he ended his letter, Beware. You will never get out of this world alive.
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An answer is invariably the parent of a whole family of new questions.
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(Suicide) takes some doing, with maybe pain and maybe hell.
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I've always tried out my material on my dogs first. Years ago, when my red setter chewed up the manuscript of 'Of Mice and Men,' I said at the time that the dog must have been an excellent literary critic.
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Well, every little boy thinks he invented sin. Virtue we think we learn, because we are told about it. But sin is our own designing.
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So much there is to see, but our morning eyes describe a different world than do our afternoon eyes, and surely our wearied evening eyes can report only a weary evening world.
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Out of all this struggle a good thing is going to grow. That makes it worthwhile.
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Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain and if you don't believe that, watch an illiterate adult try to do it.
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When a man says he does not want to speak of something he usually means he can think of nothing else.
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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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We have to make a mark, even if it's only a scribble.
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I am sifting my memories, the way men pan the dirt under a barroom floor for the bits of gold dust that fall between the cracks. It's small mining-- small mining. You're too young a man to be panning memories, Adam. You should be getting yourself some new ones, so that the mining will be richer when you come to age.
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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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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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Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all else, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word.
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There are no ugly questions except those clothed in condescension.
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I have seen too many men go down, and I never permit myself to forget that one day, through accident or under the charge of a younger, stronger knight, I too will go down.
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Within that frame he went a long way and burned a deep scar.
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Strange how one person can saturate a room with vitality, with excitement. Then there are others, and this dame was one of them, who can drain off energy and joy, can suck pleasure dry and get no sustenance from it. Such people spread a grayness in the air about them.
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