1,374 Quotes by John Steinbeck

Up ahead they's a thousan' lives we might live, but when it comes it'll on'y be one.

I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog.

I've always taken my hangovers as consequence, not as a punishment.

Trips to fairly unknown regions should be made twice; once to make mistakes and once to correct them.

There are places in this world where fable, myth, preconception, love, longing or prejudice step in and so distort a cool, clear appraisal that a kind of high colored magical confusion takes permanent hold...Surely Texas is such a place...

There are two kinds of people in the world, observers and non-observers...

Life could not change the sun or water the desert, so it changed itself.

Men don't get knocked out, or I mean they can fight back against big things. What kills them is erosion; they get nudged into failure. They get slowly scared.[...]It's slow. It rots out your guts.

Why do men like me want sons? he wondered. It must be because they hope in their poor beaten souls that these new men, who are their blood, will do the things they were not strong enough nor wise enough nor brave enough to do. It is rather like another chance at life; like a new bag of coins at a table of luck after your fortune is gone.