Quote

Fella in business got to lie an' cheat, but he calls it somepin else. That's what's important. You go steal that tire an' you're a thief, but he tried to steal your four dollars for a busted tire. They call that sound business.

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
Lying
Cheat
Sound
Steal
Fella
Calls
Fellas
Business
Stealing
Busted
Else
Dollars
Dishonesty
Important
Tried
Thief
Four
Tire
Call
Thieves

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Change was everywhere. People were gone, or changed, and that was almost like being gone.
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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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He learned that when people are very poor they still have something to give and the impulse to give it.
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A good writer always works at the impossible.
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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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... a man is a very important thing-maybe more important than a star.
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It is a nice thing to be working and believing in my work again. I hope I can keep the drive. I only feel whole and well when it is this way.
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In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
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If you're in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones.
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When you're huntin' somepin you're a hunter, an' you're strong. Can't nobody beat a hunter. But when you get hunted - that's different. Somepin happens to you. You ain't strong: maybe you're fierce, but you ain't strong. - Muley
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One can't be happy as I have been for very long. There's a law against it. I have worked hard and enjoyed my work and it is the punishment of man to hate his work. Sooner or later I will have work that I hate.
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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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There is nothing pleasanter than spading when the ground is soft and damp.
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Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do...Try to be better than yourself.
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