Quotes from John Steinbeck

You never oughta drink water when it ain't running

A light in the daytime is a lonely thing.

How could I compete with a debtless man?

It was then that Doc devised a method for getting revenge on a bank if anyone should ever want to. 'Rent a safety deposit box,' he said, 'then deposit in it one whole fresh salmon and go away for six months.

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.

Cyrus wanted a woman to take care of Adam. He needed someone to keep house and cook, and a servant cost money. He was a vigorous man and needed the body of a woman, and that too cost money—unless you were married to it.

The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty.

A writer lives in awe of words, for they can be cruel or kind, and they can change their meanings right in front of you. They pick up flavors and odors like butter in a refrigerator.

Kino watched with the detachment of God while a dusty ant frantically tried to escape the sand trap an ant lion had dug for him.

Sometimes a sad man can talk the sadness right out through his mouth. Sometimes a killin' man can talk the murder right out of his mouth an' not do no murder.

This nickel, unlike most money, has actually done a job of work, has been physically responsible for a reaction.

Sometimes it rose to an aching chord that caught the throat, saying this is the safety, this is warmth, this is the Whole.

I think perhaps I am one of those lucky mortals whose work and whose life are the same thing.

And at that moment he saw that Merlin was already standing in the entrance of the tent, and Merlin smiled, for he took joy in causing wonder.

Successful law is simply the publication of the practice of the majority of units of a society, and by it the inevitable variable units are either driven to conform or are eliminated. We have had many examples of law trying to be the well-spring of action; our prohibition law showed how completely fallacious that theory is.

There's a capacity for appetite,' Samuel said, 'that a whole heaven and earth of cake can't satisfy.

They say a clean cut heals soonest. 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.

I am incomparably, incredibly, overwhelmingly glad to be home. I've never been so goddam lonesome in my life.

Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody to be near him

It was Una," he said hoarsely. "He couldn't get over Una. He told me how a man, a real man, had no right to let sorrow destroy him. He told me again and again how I must believe that time would take care of it. He said it so often that I knew he was losing.

The great owners, striking at the immediate thing, the widening government, the growing labor unity; striking at new taxes, at plans; not knowing these things are results, not causes.

in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

Prayer never brought in no side-meat.

Any writing which has influenced the thinking and the lives of innumerable people is important.