Top 500 John Steinbeck Quotes (2023 Update)
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151. “You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous.”

— John Steinbeck

152. “A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike.”

— John Steinbeck

153. “Some men are friends with the whole world in their hearts, and there are others that hate themselves and spread their hatred around like butter on hot bread.”

— John Steinbeck

154. “The candle aimed its spark of light at heaven, like an artist who consumes himself to become divine.”

— John Steinbeck

155. “In nature two things do not occur-the wheel and good taste.”

— John Steinbeck

156. “You know most people live ninety per cent in the past, seven per cent in the present, and that only leaves them three per cent for the future.”

— John Steinbeck

157. “Three hours of writing require twenty hours of preparation. Luckily I have learned to dream about the work, which saves me some working time.”

— John Steinbeck

158. “To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.”

— John Steinbeck

159. “His ear heard more than what was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought.”

— John Steinbeck

160. “I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession.”

— John Steinbeck

161. “People are felt rather than seen after the first few moments...”

— John Steinbeck

162. “A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool.”

— John Steinbeck

163. “I’ve done my damndest to rip a reader’s nerves to rags, I don’t want him satisfied.”

— John Steinbeck

164. “For every man in the world functions to the best of his ability, and no one does less than his best, no matter what he may think about it.”

— John Steinbeck

165. “Only in laziness can one achieve a state of contemplation which is a balancing of values, a weighing of oneself against the world and the world against itself. A busy man cannot find time for such balancing. We do not think a lazy man can commit murders, nor great thefts, nor lead a mob. He would be more likely to think about it and laugh. And a nation of lazy contemplative men would be incapable of fighting a war unless their very laziness were attacked. Wars are the activities of busy-ness.”

— John Steinbeck

166. “It is not good to want a thing too much. It sometimes drives the luck away. You must want it just enough, and you must be very tactful with Gods or the gods.”

— John Steinbeck

167. “One who was born by the ocean or has associated with it cannot ever be quite content away from it for very long.”

— John Steinbeck

168. “He said, “I am a man,” and that meant certain things to Juana. It meant that he was half insane and half god.”

— John Steinbeck

169. “There are monstrous changes taking place in the world, forces shaping a future whose face we do not know. Some of these forces seem evil to us, perhaps not in themselves but because their tendency is to eliminate other things we hold good.”

— John Steinbeck

170. “Can you honestly love a dishonest thing?”

— John Steinbeck

171. “I am happy to report that in the war between reality and romance, reality is not the stronger.”

— John Steinbeck

172. “Death was a friend, and sleep was Death’s brother.”

— John Steinbeck

173. “He ain’t no cuckoo,” said George. “He’s dumb as hell, but he ain’t crazy. An’ I ain’t so bright neither, or I wouldn’t be buckin’ barley for my fifty and found.”

— John Steinbeck

174. “You never oughta drink water when it ain’t runnin’.”

— John Steinbeck

175. “Perhaps it takes courage to raise children...”

— John Steinbeck

176. “I guess this is why I hate governments, all governments. It is always the rule, the fine print, carried out by fine-print men. There’s nothing to fight, no wall to hammer with frustrated fists.”

— John Steinbeck

177. “The flies have conquered the flypaper.”

— John Steinbeck

178. “Poetry is the mathematics of writing and closely kin to music.”

— John Steinbeck

179. “Time is the only critic without ambition.”

— John Steinbeck

180. “I know now why confusion in government is not only tolerated but encouraged. I have learned. A confused people can make no clear demands.”

— John Steinbeck

181. “Socialism is just another form of religion, and thus delusional.”

— John Steinbeck

182. “I’ve always seen you, angel. From the moment you found me, I’ve seen nothing but you.”

— John Steinbeck

183. “A Texan outside of Texas is a foreigner.”

— John Steinbeck

184. “The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.”

— John Steinbeck

185. “The great companies did not know that the line between hunger and anger is a thin line.”

— John Steinbeck

186. “The comfortable people in tight houses felt pity at first, and then distaste, and finally hatred for the migrant people.”

— John Steinbeck

187. “Hate cannot live alone. It must have love as a trigger, a goad, or a stimulant.”

— John Steinbeck

188. “I have written a great many stories and I still don’t know how to go about it except to write it and take my chances.”

— John Steinbeck

189. “When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find himself a good and sufficient reason for going.”

— John Steinbeck

190. “How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can’t scare him – he has known a fear beyond every other.”

— John Steinbeck

191. “Out of all this struggle a good thing is going to grow. That makes it worthwhile.”

— John Steinbeck

192. “If a bank or a finance company owned the land, the owner man said, The Bank – or the Company – needs – wants – insists – must have – as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them. These last would take no responsibility for the banks or the companies because they were men and slaves, while the banks were machines and masters all at the same time.”

— John Steinbeck

193. “Niagara Falls is very nice. I’m very glad I saw it, because from now on if I am asked whether I have seen Niagara Falls I can say yes, and be telling the truth for once.”

— John Steinbeck

194. “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.”

— John Steinbeck

195. “When Kino had finished, Juana came back to the fire and ate her breakfast. They had spoken once, but there is not need for speech if it is only a habit anyway. Kino sighed with satisfaction – and that was conversation.”

— John Steinbeck

196. “We have to make a mark, even if it’s only a scribble.”

— John Steinbeck

197. “Oh, the strawberries don’t taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch!”

— John Steinbeck

198. “Sometimes a kind of glory lights up the mind of a man.”

— John Steinbeck

199. “And this you can know- fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.”

— John Steinbeck

200. “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.”

— John Steinbeck