John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American author and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner “for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception.” He has been called “a giant of American letters,”. Let’s take inspiration from our collection of John Steinbeck Quotes And Saying.
All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal.
– John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck Quotes
1. “Anything that just costs money is cheap.” – John Steinbeck
2. “There’s more beauty in truth, even if it is dreadful beauty.” – John Steinbeck
3. “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” – John Steinbeck
4. “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” – John Steinbeck
5. “Some people think it’s an insult to the glory of their sickness to get well.” – John Steinbeck
6. “The weight of knowledge is too great for one mind to absorb.” – John Steinbeck
7. “Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power.” – John Steinbeck
8. “If you’re in trouble, or hurt or need – go to the poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help – the only ones.” – John Steinbeck
9. “No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.” – John Steinbeck
10. “When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you’ve got two new people.” – John Steinbeck
11. “The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty.” – John Steinbeck
12. “I wonder how many people I’ve looked at all my life and never seen.” – John Steinbeck
13. “There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do.” – John Steinbeck
14. “And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” – John Steinbeck
15. “We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it.” – John Steinbeck
16. “All great and precious things are lonely.” – John Steinbeck
17. “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” – John Steinbeck
18. “People who are most afraid of their dreams convince themselves they don’t dream at all.” – John Steinbeck
19. “I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is indestructible.” – John Steinbeck
20. “Try to understand men. If you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and almost always leads to love.” – John Steinbeck
21. “It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them.” – John Steinbeck
22. “You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself.” – John Steinbeck
23. “You can boast about anything if it’s all you have. Maybe the less you have, the more you are required to boast.” – John Steinbeck
24. “No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.” – John Steinbeck
25. “Man has a choice and it’s a choice that makes him a man.” – John Steinbeck
26. “Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.” – John Steinbeck
27. “I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.” – John Steinbeck
28. “Give a critic an inch, he’ll write a play.” – John Steinbeck
29. “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” – John Steinbeck
30. “Perhaps the best conversationalist in the world is the man who helps others to talk.” – John Steinbeck
31. “Don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens – The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.” – John Steinbeck
32. “Only mediocrity escapes criticism.” – John Steinbeck
33. “The free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.” – John Steinbeck
34. “In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.” – John Steinbeck
35. “For the most part people are not curious except about themselves.” – John Steinbeck
36. “No one who is young is ever going to be old.” – John Steinbeck
37. “Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed.” – John Steinbeck
38. “Time is the only critic without ambition.” – John Steinbeck
39. “Books are the best friends you can have; they inform you, and entertain you, and they don’t talk back.” – John Steinbeck
40. “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
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