Quotes About Struggle

The people in flight from the terror behind—strange things happen to them, some bitterly cruel and some so beautiful that the faith is refired forever.

Nearly everyone has his box of secret pain, shared with no one.

No. No—only a kind of sinking in the heart. Maybe later I'll sort it out to hatred. There was no interval from loveliness to horror, you see. I'm confused, confused.

Sto imparando una cosa importante, disse. La sto imparando ogni momento, tutt'i giorni. Quando stai male o magari hai bisogno o sei nei guai... va' dalla povera gente. Soltanto loro ti danno una mano... soltanto loro.

He climbed ecstatic mountains and floundered in the rocky darkness between the peaks.

If a bank or a finance company owned the land, the owner man said, The Bank—or the Company—needs—wants—insists—must have—as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them. These last would take no responsibility for the banks or the companies because they were men and slaves, while the banks were machines and masters all at the same time.

Ed ecco cosa puoi sapere per certo: terribile è il tempo in cui l'Uomo non voglia soffrire e morire per un'idea, perché quest'unica qualità è fondamento dell'Uomo, e quest'unica qualità è l'uomo in sé, peculiare nell'universo.

I think I love you. But I'm not good. Because you're not good.

Tu quello che puoi fare devi farlo lo stesso. L'importante,' diceva, 'è sapere che ogni volta che c'è un piccolo passo avanti, poi c'è pure una scivolata indietro, ma mai così indietro come prima. E' la differenza,' diceva, 'dimostra che quello che hai fatto era giusto farlo. E non era una perdita di tempo pure se magari sembrava di sì.

when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need.

Tom laughed. "You jus' a-treadin' him on?'' "Sure,'' said Ma. "Take a man, he can get worried an' worried, an' it eats out his liver, an' purty soon he'll jus' lay down and die with his heart et out. But if you can take an' make 'im mad, why, he'll be awright. Pa, he didn' say nothin', but he's mad now. He'll show me now. He's awright.

The new migrants from the dust bowl are here to stay. They are the vest American stock, intelligent, resourceful; and, if given a chance, socially responsible. To attempt to force them into a peonage of starvation and intimidated despair will be unsuccessful. They can be citizens of the highest type, or they can be an army driven by suffering to take what they need. On their future treatment will depend the course they will be force to take.

Al said, We'll burn right up if we got climbin' to do. Have to throw out some a' this stuff. Maybe, we shouldn' a brang that preacher. You'll be glad a that preacher 'fore we're through, said Ma. That preacher'll help us.

Okies--the owners hated them because they knew they were soft and the Okies strong, that they were fed and the Okies hungry; and perhaps the owners had heard from their grandfathers how easy it is to steal land from a soft man if you are fierce and hungry and armed. The owners hated them.

We still got a where we want, even if we got to crawl for the right.

A crop raised--why, that makes ownership. Land hoed and the carrots eaten--a man might fight for land he's taken food from. Get him off quick! He'll think he owns it. He might even die fighting for the little plot among the Jimson weed.

In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy,growing heavy for the vintage.

The desert, being an unwanted place, might well be the last stand of life against unlife. For in the rich and moist and wanted areas of the world, life pyramids against itself and in its confusion has finally allied itself with the enemy non-life.

Man has become our greatest hazard, and our only hope.

If the most versatile of living forms, the human, now fights for survival as it always has, it can eliminate not only itself but all other life. (p 165)

You're jest a-teasin' yourself up to cry. I don' know what's come at you. Our folks ain't never did that. They took what come to 'em dry-eyed.

I don't aim to starve to death before I kill the man that's starving me.

She had learned fear now and her mind sniffed about like a rat looking for an escape.

I don't know whether I can accept things or not, Lee said I've never had a chance to try. I've always found myself with some - not less uncertain but less able to take care of uncertainty. I've had to do my weeping - alone.