John Steinbeck Quotes

Time is the only critic without ambition.

~ John Steinbeck

The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid stable business.

~ John Steinbeck

But I think that because they trusted themselves and respected themselves as individuals, because they knew beyond doubt that they were valuable and potentially moral units -- because of this they could give God their own courage and dignity and then receive it back. Such things have disappeared perhaps because men do not trust themselves anymore, and when that happens there is nothing left except perhaps to find some strong sure man, even though he may be wrong, and to dangle from his coattails.

~ John Steinbeck

In that day an educated rich man was acceptable. He might send his sons to college without comment, might wear a vest and white shirt and tie in the daytime of a weekday, might wear gloves and keep his nails clean. And since the lives and practices of rich men were mysterious, who knows what they could use or not use? But a poor man––what need had he for poetry or for painting or for music not fit for singing or dancing?

~ John Steinbeck

The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.

~ John Steinbeck

Sectional football games have the glory and the despair of war, and when a Texas team takes the field against a foreign state, it is an army with banners.

~ John Steinbeck

Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased.

~ John Steinbeck

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

~ John Steinbeck

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

It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.

~ John Steinbeck

It has always been my private conviction that any man who puts his intelligence up against a fish and loses had it coming.

~ John Steinbeck

We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it.

~ John Steinbeck

No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.

~ John Steinbeck

Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.

~ John Steinbeck

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.

~ John Steinbeck

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

~ John Steinbeck

A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.

~ John Steinbeck

No one wants advice - only corroboration.

~ John Steinbeck