Quote

Failure is a state of mind. It's like one of those sand traps an ant lion digs. You keep sliding back. Takes one hell of a jump to get out of it.

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
Back
Jump
Mind
Sand
Like
Failure
Digs
Hell
Sliding
Takes
Ants
State
Lion
Keep
Traps
States
Lions

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A fallow field is a sin.
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Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping.
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Good God, what a mess of draggle-tail impulses a man is--and a woman too, I guess.
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There is nothing pleasanter than spading when the ground is soft and damp.
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Everyone I have ever known very well has been concerned that I would eventually starve. Probably I shall. It isn't important enough to me to be an obsession.
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Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals.
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I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.
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She had a dour Presbyterian mind and a code of morals that pinned down and beat the brains out of nearly everything that was pleasant to do.
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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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What some people find in religion a writer may find in his craft...a kind of breaking through to glory.
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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.
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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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Sir, this is a unique dog. He does not live by tooth or fang. He respects the right of cats to be cats although he doesn't admire them. He turns his steps rather than disturb an earnest caterpillar. His greatest fear is that someone will point out a rabbit and suggest that he chase it. This is a dog of peace and tranquility.
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I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is indestructible.
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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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