Of Mice And Men

50 Classic John Steinbeck Quotes That'll Give You A New Perspective On Our Universe

You've never thought about life like this before.
Holly Riordan
July 13, 2016
“It was deeply a part of Lee's kindness and understanding that man's right to kill himself is inviolable, but sometimes a friend can make it unnecessary”
— John Steinbeck, Cannery Row: (Centennial Edition)
Tagged: kindness, Friendship, Suicide, Death
“I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen.”
— John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Classics)
Tagged: humanity, Point of View, Perspective
“To be alive at all is to have scars.”
— John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Classics)
Tagged: alive, Living, Scars, Pain
“No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.”
— John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Classics)
Tagged: humanity, differences, similarities
“People who are most afraid of their dreams convince themselves they don't dream at all.”
— John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Classics)
Tagged: Dreams, Goals, Fear
“You know how advice is - you only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyways.”
— John Steinbeck, Cannery Row: (Centennial Edition)
Tagged: Advice, Opinions, agreement
“Grab anything that goes by. It may not come around again.”
— John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Classics)
Tagged: opportunities, chances, Life
“In poverty she is envious. In riches she may be a snob. Money does not change the sickness, only the symptoms”
— John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Classics)
Tagged: Money, rich, poor
“You know most people live ninety per cent in the past, seven per cent in the present, and that only leaves them three per cent for the future.”
— John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Classics)
Tagged: Past, present, Future, Time
“I have no choice of living or dying, you see, sir--but I do have a choice of how I do it.”
— John Steinbeck, The Moon Is Down
Tagged: Choices, Living, Death
“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
— John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America
Tagged: Summer, Winter, Happiness, Sadness
“A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.”
— John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America
Tagged: Sadness, Death, sickness
“We value virtue but do not discuss it. The honest bookkeeper, the faithful wife, the earnest scholar get little of our attention compared to the embezzler, the tramp, the cheat.”
— John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America
Tagged: Virtue, Honesty, Attention
“I am happy to report that in the war between reality and romance, reality is not the stronger.”
— John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America
Tagged: romance, Reality, Love
“It's awful not to be loved. It's the worst thing in the world. It makes you mean, and violent, and cruel.”
— John Steinbeck, East of Eden (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)
Tagged: Love, Violence, Hate
“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.”
— John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America
Tagged: Journey, Control, Life
“Maybe-- maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure-- never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself?”
— John Steinbeck, East of Eden (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)
Tagged: Love, Doubts, Dating
“Up ahead they's a thousand lives we might live, but when it comes it'll only be one.”
— John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Tagged: Choices, Life, opportunities
“When a condition or a problem becomes too great, humans have the protection of not thinking about it. But it goes inward and minces up with a lot of other things already there and what comes out is discontent and uneasiness, guilt and a compulsion to get something--anything--before it is all gone.”
— John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Classics)
Tagged: Sadness, Problems, Stress
“Man has a choice and it's a choice that makes him a man.”
— John Steinbeck, East of Eden (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)
Tagged: Choices, humanity, Men