Quotations from
John Steinbeck
[1902-68]

American author John Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1940 for his masterpiece, the novel "The Grapes of Wrath", and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962.

Links are provided below for further investigation.
The references to WMail issues indicate quotes that appeared in the free monthly 'WMail' ezine
connected with the revolutionary "Working Minds Philosophy of Empowerment" created by G.E. Nordell.

After WMail Issue #72 in October 2007, essays & quotations & news are being posted to the Dateline Chamesa blog

John Steinbeck entry at Wikipedia
National Steinbeck Center [est. 1998]

John Steinbeck Page
at Spirit of America Bookstore

"The Grapes of Wrath" 1940 Movie Page at Magic Lantern

“Joseph McCarthy proved [that] the more ridiculous the charge,
the less possibility there is of defense.” (in "America & Americans" 1968)  {Issue #36}
•      •
“Most of the feeling we call religious, most of the mystical outcrying which is one of the prized
and used and desired reactions of our species, is really the understanding and the attempt
to say that man is related to the whole thing.” (from "Sea of Cortez" 1941)  {Issue #39}
•      •
“The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world.
And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.”  {Issue #65}
•      •
“Boileau said that Kings, Gods and Heroes only were fit subjects for literature. The writer can only
write about what he admires. Present-day kings aren't very inspiring, the gods are on a vacation,
and about the only heroes left are the scientists and the poor.”  {Issue #69}

“I’m in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some
affection. But with Montana it is love. And it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it... Montana seems
to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”  {Issue #69}

“Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts ... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.”  {Issue #69}

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them,
and pretty soon you have a dozen.”  {Issue #69}

“This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.
And this I would fight for: The freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this
I must fight against: Any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.”  {Issue #69}
•      •
“It is historically true that a nation whose people take out more than they put in will collapse
and disappear.” (in "America & Americans" 1966)  {blog 8/2008}
•      •
“Time is the only critic without personal ambition.”  {blog 7/2012}
•      •
“No one wants advice – only corroboration.”  {blog 5/2013}
•      •
“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”  {blog 12/2013}
•      •
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat
but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”  {blog 4/2014}
•      •
“The Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one. It's as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy
to prove whether he was good enough to get to California.”  {blog 8/2015}
•      •
“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” - in his 1952 novel "East of Eden"  {blog 11/2016 & 7/2017}
•      •
“I'm back with my own kind of people here now, the bums and drinkers and no goods and it is a fine thing.”  {blog 6/2018}
•      •
“All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal.”  {blog 5/2022}
•      •
“It has always seemed strange to me,” said Doc. “The things [that] we admire in men - kindness and generosity, openness, honesty,
understanding, and feeling - are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits [that] we detest - sharpness, greed,
acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and self-interest - are the traits of success.” - in "Cannery Row" [1945]  {blog 10/2022}

Steinbeck Quotations Not Yet Used on the Blog

"Man is indeed wonderful, and perhaps his greatest achievement has been
to survive his paradoxes." - in "America & Americans", 1966

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