124+ Best John Steinbeck Quotes: Exclusive Selection

John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. was an American author. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception.” Profoundly inspirational John Steinbeck quotes will challenge the way you think, change the way you live and transform your whole life.

If you’re searching for quotes by famous authors that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of quotes by Upton Sinclair, best H. P. Lovecraft quotes and greatest Jack Kerouac quotes.

Famous John Steinbeck Quotes

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. John Steinbeck

I wonder how many people I’ve looked at all my life and never seen. John Steinbeck

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

Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other. John Steinbeck

I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession. John Steinbeck

And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good. John Steinbeck

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

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

I’ve seen a look in dogs eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts. John Steinbeck

There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do. John Steinbeck

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

It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone. John Steinbeck

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. John Steinbeck

But the Hebrew word, the word timshel Thou mayest that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if Thou mayest it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not. John Steinbeck

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. John Steinbeck

I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why. John Steinbeck

No one wants advice only corroboration. John Steinbeck

And 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. This is what I am and what I am about. John Steinbeck

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

All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal. John Steinbeck

Give a critic an inch, he’ll write a play. John Steinbeck

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness. John Steinbeck

Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard. John Steinbeck

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen. John Steinbeck

I have never smuggled anything in my life. Why, then, do I feel an uneasy sense of guilt on approaching a customs barrier? John Steinbeck

And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. John Steinbeck

These words dropped into my childish mind as if you should accidentally drop a ring into a deep well. I did not think of them much at the time, but there came a day in my life when the ring was fished up out of the well, good as new. John Steinbeck

I was born lost and take no pleasure in being found. John Steinbeck

I have owed you this letter for a very long time but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool. John Steinbeck

I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one.  Humans are caught in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too in a net of good and evil. There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well or ill? John Steinbeck

Four hoarse blasts of a ship’s whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. John Steinbeck

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

A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ. John Steinbeck

There’s more beauty in truth, even if it is dreadful beauty. John Steinbeck

One can find so many pains when the rain is falling. John Steinbeck

It has always seemed strange to me. The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second. John Steinbeck

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. John Steinbeck

I have always lived violently, drunk hugely, eaten too much or not at all, slept around the clock or missed two nights of sleeping, worked too hard and too long in glory, or slobbed for a time in utter laziness. I’ve lifted, pulled, chopped, climbed, made love with joy and taken my hangovers as a consequence, not as a punishment. John Steinbeck

It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure on the world. John Steinbeck

I guess there are never enough books. John Steinbeck

Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass. John Steinbeck

When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you’ve got two new people. John Steinbeck

I’ve lived in good climate, and it bores the hell out of me. I like weather rather than climate. John Steinbeck

As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment. John Steinbeck

Man is the only kind of varmint sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it. John Steinbeck

It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world. John Steinbeck

There are as many worlds as there are kinds of days, and as an opal changes its colors and its fire to match the nature of a day, so do I. John Steinbeck

Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids. John Steinbeck

No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself. John Steinbeck

A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ. John Steinbeck

In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable. John Steinbeck

The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business. John Steinbeck

A kind of light spread out from her. And everything changed color. And the world opened out. And a day was good to awaken to. And there were no limits to anything. And the people of the world were good and handsome. And I was not afraid any more. John Steinbeck

Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals. John Steinbeck

No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself. John Steinbeck

We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it. John Steinbeck

People like you to be something, preferably what they are. John Steinbeck

Syntax, my lad. It has been restored to the highest place in the republic. John Steinbeck

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

I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything. John Steinbeck

But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed  because Thou mayest. John Steinbeck

Man, unlike anything organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments. John Steinbeck

A guy needs somebodyto be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an he gets sick. John Steinbeck

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen. John Steinbeck

I shall revenge myself in the cruelest way you can imagine. I shall forget it. John Steinbeck

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

We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is. John Steinbeck

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts perhaps the fear of a loss of power. John Steinbeck

An unbelieved truth can hurt a man much more than a lie. It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There’s a punishment for it, and it’s usually crucifixion. John Steinbeck

Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased. John Steinbeck

When a man says he does not want to speak of something he usually means he can think of nothing else. John Steinbeck

It has always been my private conviction that any man who puts his intelligence up against a fish and loses had it coming. John Steinbeck

Can you honestly love a dishonest thing? John Steinbeck

So in our pride we ordered for breakfast an omelet, toast and coffee and what has just arrived is a tomato salad with onions, a dish of pickles, a big slice of watermelon and two bottles of cream soda. John Steinbeck

You’ve seen the sun flatten and take strange shapes just before it sinks in the ocean. Do you have to tell yourself every time that it’s an illusion caused by atmospheric dust and light distorted by the sea, or do you simply enjoy the beauty of it? John Steinbeck

It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth. John Steinbeck

Perhaps it takes courage to raise children. John Steinbeck

Where does discontent start? You are warm enough, but you shiver. You are fed, yet hunger gnaws you. You have been loved, but your yearning wanders in new fields. And to prod all these there’s time, the Bastard Time. John Steinbeck

You know how advice is you only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyways. John Steinbeck

Time is the only critic without ambition. John Steinbeck

The quality of owning freezes you forever in I, and cuts you off forever from the we. John Steinbeck

Sectional football games have the glory and the despair of war, and when a Texas team takes the field against a foreign state, it is an army with banners. John Steinbeck

I wonder why progress looks so much like destruction. John Steinbeck

And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good. John Steinbeck

Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man. John Steinbeck

Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids. John Steinbeck

I am happy to report that in the war between reality and romance, reality is not the stronger. John Steinbeck

A kind of light spread out from her. And everything changed color. And the world opened out. And a day was good to awaken to. And there were no limits to anything. And the people of the world were good and handsome. And I was not afraid anymore. John Steinbeck

Guy don’t need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain’t hardly ever a nice fella. John Steinbeck

People like you to be something, preferably what they are. John Steinbeck

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

It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils since we invented them. John Steinbeck

Men really do need sea monsters in their personal oceans. John Steinbeck

Some men are friends with the whole world in their hearts, and there are others that hate themselves and spread their hatred around like butter on hot bread. John Steinbeck

And 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. John Steinbeck

Some people think it’s an insult to the glory of their sickness to get well. John Steinbeck

Death was a friend, and sleep was Death’s brother. John Steinbeck

Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. John Steinbeck

His ear heard more than what was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought. John Steinbeck

Socialism is just another form of religion, and thus delusional. John Steinbeck

I guess I’m trying to say, Grab anything that goes by. It may not come around again. John Steinbeck

I know now why confusion in government is not only tolerated but encouraged. I have learned. A confused people can make no clear demands. John Steinbeck

I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here. They spoke quietly of how they wanted to go someday, to move about, free and unanchored, not toward something but away from something. I saw this look and heard this yearning everywhere in every states I visited. Nearly every American hungers to move. John Steinbeck

And this I must fight against any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for this is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. John Steinbeck

I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans. John Steinbeck

I guess this is why I hate governments, all governments. It is always the rule, the fine print, carried out by fine print men. There’s nothing to fight, no wall to hammer with frustrated fists. John Steinbeck

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

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 nearly always leads to love. John Steinbeck

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance. John Steinbeck

A man so painfully in love is capable of self torture beyond belief. John Steinbeck

Up ahead they’s a thousan’ lives we might live, but when it comes it’ll on’y be one. John Steinbeck

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

For it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more. And this is said in disparagement, whereas it is one of the greatest talents the species has and one that has made it superior to animals that are satisfied with what they have. John Steinbeck

A woman holds dreadful power over a man who is in love with her, but she should realize that the quality and force of his love is the index of his potential contempt and hatred. John Steinbeck

Man has a choice and it’s a choice that makes him a man. John Steinbeck

There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do. John Steinbeck

It’s all fine to say, Time will heal everything, this too shall pass away. People will forget and things like that when you are not involved, but when you are there is no passage of time, people do not forget and you are in the middle of something that does not change. John Steinbeck

It was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials. John Steinbeck

A large drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going. And dusk crept over the sky from the eastern horizon, and darkness crept over the land from the east. John Steinbeck

How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past? John Steinbeck

If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he’s poor in hisself, there ain’t no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an maybe he’s disappointed that nothin’ he can do ‘ll make him feel rich. John Steinbeck