John Steinbeck Quotes About Giving

Quotes about: Giving

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

  John Steinbeck

  Summer, Winter, Weather

• If you want to destroy a nation, give it too much - make it greedy, miserable and sick.

  John Steinbeck

  Simple, Giving, Sick

• 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

  Men, Eden, Giving

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.265, Penguin

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

  John Steinbeck

  Giving, Unqualified, Praise

  "The Affluent Society". Book by John Kenneth Galbraith. Introduction, 1977.

• But I think that because they trusted themselves and respected themselves as individuals, because they knew beyond doubt that they were valuable and potentially moral units -- because of this they could give God their own courage and dignity and then receive it back. Such things have disappeared perhaps because men do not trust themselves anymore, and when that happens there is nothing left except perhaps to find some strong sure man, even though he may be wrong, and to dangle from his coattails.

  John Steinbeck

  Strong, Men, Thinking

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.16, Penguin

• What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness? You only truly, deeply appreciate and are grateful for something when you compare and contrast it to something worse.

  John Steinbeck

  Summer, Gratitude, Grateful

• 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

  Animal, Want Something, Giving

  John Steinbeck (1993). “The Pearl”, p.31, Penguin

• But you must give him some sign, some sign that you love him... or he'll never be a man. All his life he'll feel guilty and alone unless you release him.

  John Steinbeck

  Men, Giving, Guilty

• Give a critic an inch, he'll write a play.

  John Steinbeck

  Writing, Play, Giving

  "Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, Fourth Series". Book edited by George Plimpton. Chapter "On Critics", 1977.

• He learned that when people are very poor they still have something to give and the impulse to give it.

  John Steinbeck

  Inspirational, Motivational, People

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.52, Penguin

• But 'Thou mayest!'! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win

  John Steinbeck

  Brother, Fighting, Winning

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.265, Penguin

• 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...Why, that makes a man great...He can choose his course and fight it through and win...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'. ch 24

  John Steinbeck

  Fighting, Winning, Unique

• The ways of sin are curious . . . I guess if a man had to shuck off everything he had, inside and out, he'd manage to hide a few little sins somewhere for his own discomfort. They're the last things we'll give up.

  John Steinbeck

  Giving Up, Men, Littles

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.146, Penguin

• I think bullfights are for men who aren't very brave and wish they were. If you saw one you'll know what I mean. Remember after all the cape work when the bull tries to kill something that isn't there? Remember how he gets confused and uneasy, sometimes just stands and looks for an answer? Well, then they have to give him a horse or his heart will break. He has to get his horns into something solid or his spirit dies. Well, I'm that horse. And that's the kind of men I get, confused and puzzled. If they can get a horn into me, that's a little triumph.

  John Steinbeck

  Horse, Confused, Heart

• Give me a used Bible and I will, I think, be able to tell you about a man by the places that are edged with the dirt of seeking fingers.

  John Steinbeck

  Men, Thinking, Giving

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.234, Penguin

• Dear Lord,' he said. 'let me be like Aron. Don’t make me mean. I don’t want to be. If you will let everybody like me, why, I’ll give you anything in the world, and if I haven’t got it, why, I’ll go for to get it. I don’t want to be mean. I don’t want to be lonely. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

  John Steinbeck

  Lonely, Jesus, Mean

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.333, Penguin

• A strange species we are, We can stand anything God and nature can throw at us save only plenty. If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much, and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy, sick. --John Steinbeck to Adlai Stevenson

  John Steinbeck

  Giving, Sick, Knees

  John Steinbeck (2003). “America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction”, p.97, Penguin

• The techniques of opening conversation are universal. I knew long ago and rediscovered that the best way to attract attention, help, and conversation is to be lost. A man who seeing his mother starving to death on a path kicks her in the stomach to clear the way, will cheerfully devote several hours of his time giving wrong directions to a total stranger who claims to be lost.

  John Steinbeck

  Mother, Men, Long Ago

  John Steinbeck (1980). “Travels with Charley in Search of America”, p.11, Penguin

• No one knows how greatness comes to a man. It may lie in his blackness, sleeping, or it may lance into him like those driven fiery particles from outer space. These things, however, are known about greatness: need gives it life and puts it in action; it never comes without pain; it leaves a man changed, chastened, and exalted at the same time--he can never return to simplicity.

  John Steinbeck

  Pain, Lying, Sleep

  John Steinbeck (2008). “Sweet Thursday”, p.316, Penguin

• It's one of the great fallacies, it seems to me, that time gives much of anything but years and sadness to man.

  John Steinbeck

  Sadness, Men, Years

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.330, Penguin

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