John Steinbeck

"I have never been able to maintain a friendship based on intellectual agreement alone."

"Perhaps the greatest discovery of my generation is the answer to the question: what happens after death?"

"The act of creation is a supreme mystery that we cannot fully grasp or comprehend."

"We are all so afraid of the truth that we build walls of words to protect ourselves from it."

"The only strength that matters is the strength of one's convictions."

"I cannot think of any good reason why anyone should become a writer unless they are driven by passion."

"The greatest adventure lies in understanding yourself and your place in the world."

"The man who won't read has no advantage over the man who can't read."

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

"In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other."

"The secret to good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or a new thing in an old way."

"We are lonesome animals. We spend all our life trying to be less lonesome."

"A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings is alive."

"If you understand each other you will be kind to each other."

"There's a capacity for appetite that a single meal can't satisfy."

"The battle with the great fish was nothing like the battle a man wages with himself."

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

"All War is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal."

"The best family decisions are made around the dinner table."

"Nothing in the world is as interesting as people."

"A man's accomplishment is measured not by how much land he holds, but by how much love he gives."

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

"It is the nature of a man as he grows older to protest against change, particularly changes for the better."

"A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ."

"I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never really seen them."

"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, we feel a responsibility for the actions of others."

"The pursuit of knowledge is the pursuit of freedom."

"Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes."

"There is no greater thing than love. But you have to be careful, because love can also destroy you."

"Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts."