There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. John Steinbeck More Quotes by John Steinbeck More Quotes From John Steinbeck When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. I fear the disease is incurable. John Steinbeck maturityjobstravel There are some times...when the love for people is strong and warm like a sorrow. John Steinbeck sorrowstrongpeople A little hope, even hopeless hope, never hurt anybody. John Steinbeck hopelesshurtlittles I’m in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection. But with Montana it is love. And it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it. John Steinbeck montanaadmirationrecognition No single organism could be understood without observing and comprehending the entire colony. John Steinbeck comprehendingcolonyunderstood Our Father who art in nature, who has given the gift of survival to the coyote, the common brown rat, the English sparrow, the house fly and the moth, must have a great and overwhelming love for no-goods and blots-on-the-town and bums, and Mack and the boys. Virtues and graces and laziness and zest. Our Father who art in nature. John Steinbeck boysfatherart Only through immitation do we develop toward originality. John Steinbeck originality Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also. John Steinbeck girlknowingfeelings I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for that is one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost. John Steinbeck hatefightingmind I have always lived violently, drunk hugely, eaten too much or not at all, slept around the clock or missed two nights of sleeping, worked too hard and too long in glory, or slobbed for a time in utter laziness. I've lifted, pulled, chopped, climbed, made love with joy and taken my hangovers as a consequence, not as a punishment. John Steinbeck hangovertakensleep Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. John Steinbeck californialightdream If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen. And here I make a rule—a great and interesting story is about everyone or it will not last. John Steinbeck lastsstoriesinteresting Perhaps the less we have, the more we are required to brag. John Steinbeck gloatingbragbragging We value virtue but do not discuss it. The honest bookkeeper, the faithful wife, the earnest scholar get little of our attention compared to the embezzler, the tramp, the cheat. John Steinbeck faithfulwifeattention Some men hunger so much for love that they lose everything that is loveable about them. John Steinbeck hungerlosesmen Once Charley fell in love with a dachshund, a romance racially unsuitable, physically ridiculous, and mechanically impossible. But all these problems Charley ignored. He loved deeply and tried dogfully. John Steinbeck dachshundsridiculousromance All Americans believe that they are born fishermen. For a man to admit a distaste for fishing would be like denouncing mother-love or hating moonlight. John Steinbeck hatemotherlove A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policies and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. John Steinbeck struggleinspirationaltravel Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power. John Steinbeck powerfearloss 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. John Steinbeck hungerobsessionimportant
