John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck (27 February, 1902 - 20 December, 1968) American writer; Nobel laureate in literature, 1962

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"The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit— for gallantry in defeat— for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally-flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man, has no dedication nor any membership in literature."
- Speech at the Nobel Banquet, Stockholm (10 December 1962)

"Maybe that's the reason," Adam said slowly, feeling his way. "Maybe if I had loved him I would have been jealous of him. You were. 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? I can see it pretty clearly. I can see how you loved him and what it did to you. I did not love him. Maybe he loved me. He tested me and hurt me and punished me and finally he sent me out like a sacrifice, maybe to make up for something. But he did not love you, and so he had faith in you. Maybe-why, maybe it's a kind of reverse."
- East of Eden

"What good men most biologists are, the tenors of the scientific world-temperamental, moody, lecherous, loud-laughing, and healthy. Your true biologist will sing you a song as loud and off-key as will a blacksmith, for he knows that morals are too often diagnostic of prostatitis and stomach ulcers. Sometimes he may proliferate a little too much in all directions, but he is as easy to kill as any other organism, and meanwhile he is very good company, and at least he does not confuse a low hormone productivity with moral ethics."
- The Log of the Sea of Cortez.

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

The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976)

"If lowborn men could stand up to those born to rule, religion, government, the whole world would fall to pieces...(Merlin replies)...So it would; so it will...then the pieces will be put together again by such as destroyed it." p.184

"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" --East of Eden

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