...to find where you are going, you must know where you are. John Steinbeck More Quotes by John Steinbeck More Quotes From John Steinbeck A good writer always works at the impossible. John Steinbeck good-writersimpossible I suffer as always from the fear of putting down the first line. It is amazing the terrors, the magics, the prayers, the straightening shyness that assails one. John Steinbeck magicsufferingprayer We, or at least I, can have no conception of human life and human thought in a hundred years or fifty years. Perhaps my greatest wisdom is the knowledge that I do not know. The sad ones are those who waste their energy in trying to hold it back, for thy can only feel bitterness in loss and no joy in gain. John Steinbeck lossjoyyears After the bare requisites to living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he has really existed. He leaves his proof on wood, on stone or on the lives of other people. This deep desire exists in everyone, from the boy who writes dirty words in a public toilet to the Buddha who etches his image in the race mind. Life is so unreal. I think that we seriously doubt that we exist and go about trying to prove that we do. John Steinbeck writingboysdirty [Man] is the only animal who lives outside of himself, whose drive is in external things—property, houses, money, concepts of power. He lives in his cities and his factories, in his business and job and art. But having projected himself into these external complexities, he is them. His house, his automobile are a part of him and a large part of him. This is beautifully demonstrated by a thing doctors know—that when a man loses his possessions a very common result is sexual impotence. John Steinbeck animaljobsart You're getting well,' Samuel said. 'Some people think it's an insult to the glory of their sickness to get well. But the time poultice is no respecter of glories. Everyone gets well if he waits around. John Steinbeck get-wellpeoplethinking Are cats strange animals or do they so resemble us that we find them curious as we do monkeys? John Steinbeck monkeyscatanimal Humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion. John Steinbeck passingconfusionhumanity There is no lostness like that which comes to a man when a perfect and certain pattern has dissolved about him. John Steinbeck perfectmenorder Strength and success; they are above morality, above criticism. It seems then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it. John Steinbeck moralitycriticismseems 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 lionsantsmind The candle aimed its spark of light at heaven, like an artist who consumes himself to become divine. John Steinbeck lightartistheaven People who are most afraid of their dreams convince themselves they don't dream at all. John Steinbeck convincedreampeople We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is. John Steinbeck edenvicesevil 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 confusedgovernmentpeople I find out of long experience that I admire all nations and hate all governments John Steinbeck governmenthatelong I was born lost and take no pleasure in being found. John Steinbeck travels-with-charleypleasurelost We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it. John Steinbeck growthhatechange Farewell has a sweet sound of reluctance. Good-by is short and final, a word with teeth sharp to bite through the string that ties past to the future. John Steinbeck saying-goodbyefarewellsweet If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it-bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn't belong there. John Steinbeck goes-onwritingthinking
