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 More Quotes by John Steinbeck More Quotes From John Steinbeck Just set one day's work in front of the last day's work. That's the way it comes out. And that's the only way it does. John Steinbeck one-day doe way If I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble. John Steinbeck trouble jobs men Socialism never took root in America. John Steinbeck socialism roots america 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. John Steinbeck hate work men It must be a hard thing to kill a man you don't know and don't hate. John Steinbeck hate men war I know people who are so immersed in road maps that they never see the countryside they pass through, and others who, having traced a route, are held to it as though held by flanged wheels to rails. John Steinbeck maps people travel I do not find illness an eminence, and I do not understand how people can use it to draw attention to themselves since the attention they draw is nearly always reluctantly given and unpleasantly carried out. John Steinbeck use attention people A woman holds dreadful power over a man who is in love with her but she should realize that the quality and force of his love is the index of his potential contempt and hatred. John Steinbeck hatred love men No one knows my ability the way I do. I am pushing against it all the time. John Steinbeck ability pushing way No one knows how greatness comes to a man. It may lie in his blackness, sleeping, or it may lance into him like those driven fiery particles from outer space. These things, however, are known about greatness: need gives it life and puts it in action; it never comes without pain; it leaves a man changed, chastened, and exalted at the same time--he can never return to simplicity. John Steinbeck pain sleep lying Americans are much more American than they are Northerners, Southerners, Westerners, or Easterners ... California Chinese, Boston Irish, Wisconsin German, yes, Alabama Negroes, have more in common than they have apart ... The American identity is an exact and provable thing. John Steinbeck boston chinese california Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans. John Steinbeck texas cities country 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 rivers running book 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 rain country book The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement brings on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms and the churn of stomach high up under the rib cage. John Steinbeck ribs eye sound This monster of a land, this mightiest of nations, this spawn of the future, turns out to be the macrocosm of microcosm me. John Steinbeck land monsters america The great companies did not know that the line between hunger and anger is a thin line. John Steinbeck hunger great-company lines ...to find where you are going, you must know where you are. John Steinbeck where-you-are-going where-you-are knows You can't slice up morals. John Steinbeck moral Change was everywhere. People were gone, or changed, and that was almost like being gone. John Steinbeck changed gone people
