1,374 Quotes by John Steinbeck

It was a morning like other mornings and yet perfect among mornings.

I think there are degrees of greatness," Adam said."I don't think so," said Samuel. "That would be like saying there is little bigness. No. I believe when you come to that responsibility the hugeness and you are alone to make your choices. On one side you have warmth and companionship and sweet understanding, and on the other – cold, lonely greatness. There you make your choice.

A man without words is a man without thought.

Strange how one person can saturate a room with vitality, with excitement. Then there are others, and this dame was one of them, who can drain off energy and joy, can suck pleasure dry and get no sustenance from it. Such people spread a grayness in the air about them.

I nearly forgot something my old father told me not long before he died. He said the threshold of insult is in direct relation to intelligence and security.

I want to take everything I've seen and thought and learned and reduce them and relate them and refine them until I have something of meaning, something of use. And I can't seem to do it.

Some people think it’s an insult to the glory of their sickness to get well.

But why couldn't she tell me? Why did I have to discover-" "Because you couldn't receive it. Because in your smallness you had not the graciousness to receive this gift. You cannot live because you have not ever looked at life. You crush loveliness on the rocks of your stinking pride. I wonder if you ever could understand.

Mordeen," he said, "I love the child." His voice swelled and he spoke loudly. "Mordeen, I love our child." And he raised his head and cried in triumph, "Mordeen, I love my son.