1,374 Quotes by John Steinbeck

Change was everywhere. People were gone, or changed, and that was almost like being gone.

No one who is young is ever going to be old.

It's almost impossible to read a fine thing without wanting to do a fine thing.

With a few exceptions people don't want money. They want luxury and they want love and they want admiration.

In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved.

[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.

I guess this is why I hate governments, all governments. It is always the rule, the fine print, carried out by fine-print men. There's nothing to fight, no wall to hammer with frustrated fists.

This is beyond understanding." said the king. "You are the wisest man alive. You know what is preparing. Why do you not make a plan to save yourself?" And Merlin said quietly, "Because I am wise. In the combat between wisdom and feeling, wisdom never wins.

There's nothing sadder to me than associations held together by nothing but the glue of postage stamps. If you can't see or hear or touch a man, it's best to let him go.