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 The direction of a big act will warp history, but probably all acts do the same in their degree, down to a stone stepped over in the path or the breath caught at sight of a pretty girl or a fingernail nicked in the garden soil. John Steinbeck garden girl sight Give a critic an inch, he'll write a play. John Steinbeck play writing giving He can kill anything for need but he could not even hurt a feeling for pleasure. John Steinbeck hurt feelings needs But you can't start over Only a boy can start over You and me Why, we're all that's been John Steinbeck starting-over over-you boys It was a day as different from other days as dogs are from cats and both of them from chrysanthemums or tidal waves or scarlet fever. John Steinbeck cat different dog Look at them. There are your true philosophers. I think that Mack and the boys know everything that has ever happened in the world and possibly everything that will happen. I think they survive in this particular world better than other people. In a time when people tear themselves to pieces with ambition and nervousness and covetousness, they are relaxed. All of our so-called successful men are sick men, with bad stomachs, and bad souls, but Mack and the boys are healthy and curiously clean. They can do what they want. They can satisfy their appetites without calling them something else. John Steinbeck ambition successful boys Up ahead they's a thousan' lives we might live, but when it comes it'll on'y be one. John Steinbeck might There are two kinds of people in the world, observers and non-observers. John Steinbeck football two people it was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials. John Steinbeck women laughter habit The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit—for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature. John Steinbeck heart war believe Good God, what a mess of draggle-tail impulses a man is--and a woman too, I guess. John Steinbeck good-god tails men It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure on the world. John Steinbeck eden two death A kind of second childhood falls on so many men. They trade their violence for the promise of a small increase of life span. In effect, the head of the house becomes the youngest child. John Steinbeck men children fall The American girl makes a servant of her husband and then finds him contemptible for being a servant John Steinbeck servant husband girl Man has become our greatest hazard, and our only hope. John Steinbeck hazards men If you are in love-that's a good thing-that's about the best thing that can happen to anyone. John Steinbeck best-things good-things happens It sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another-but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good. John Steinbeck doe feelings sometimes A boy gets to be a man when a man is needed. Remember this thing. I have known boys forty years old because there was no need for a man. John Steinbeck men boys years 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 magnificence evil world 'I know,' said Winter, 'but they don't know.' And he went on with a thought he had been having. 'A time-minded people,' he said, 'and the time is nearly up. They think that just because they have only one leader and one head, we are all like that. They know that ten heads lopped off will destroy them, but we are a free people; we have as many heads as we have people, and in a time of need leaders pop up among us like mushrooms.' John Steinbeck mushrooms winter thinking
