John Steinbeck

"Once an angry man dragged his father along the ground through his own orchard. 'Stop!' cried the boy. 'Stop, that's mine!'"

"The quality you must possess to create a thing is that you must not be afraid of it."

"There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do."

"Money is a kind of beautiful thing. Sometimes it brings out the worst in us and sometimes the best."

"A writer out of loneliness is trying to communicate like a distant star pulling at the night."

"The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved."

"It is the responsibility of a writer to lift people up, not to lower them down."

"A man may have lived all of his life in the dark, but he can still recognize light."

"The good earth is rich, and if men would work together, plenty for everyone."

"There's something in the nature of a ship and the sea that works some change in the hearts of men."

"It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of action, we should take the one that seems right."

"All of us have something to give of ourselves, and we must do it."

"Fences and walls have shadows."

"Each of us is a lonely island in the sea of existence."

"The man who says it cannot be done is generally interrupted by the man doing it."

"We are all islands shouting lies to each other across seas of misunderstanding."

"You cannot go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right."

"In his heart a man must accept the logic of his existence."

"A man may fail, but he is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else."

"The most painful thing is being left alone to think."

"We are dying before our time. This is the thing."

"I know three things will never be believed by anybody: the true word, a fact as it happened, and what I really feel."

"The working man doesn't get to see or even to hear about the noble and the elegant and the wonderful things."

"How easy it is to lose a war you're winning."

"The best time to listen is when you think you know everything."

"A man with a plan and a purpose will achieve his goals, but only if love guides him."

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

"I believe that all art, to some degree, is didactic. It means something."

"The world breaks everyone, and some become strong at the broken places."

"First think, then speak your thoughts."