Quotations

"Man is a greater miracle than any god ever invented."

— Rod Steiger, American actor, born 1925

"We come. We go. And in-between we try to understand."

— Rod Steiger, American actor, born 1925

"I had given up practicing my Jewish religion when I was a 14-year-old girl and did not begin to feel Jewish again until I had returned to God."

— Edith Stein, German Jewish Carmelite nun, born 1891

"Do not accept anything as the truth if it lacks love. And do not accept anything as love which lacks truth!"

— Edith Stein, German Jewish Carmelite nun, born 1891

"Usually one gets a heavier cross when one attempts to get rid of an old one."

—Edith Stein, German Jewish Carmelite nun, born 1891

"The thing that differentiates man from animals is money."

— Gertrude Stein, American author, born 1874

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

— John Steinbeck, American author, born 1902

"Muscles aching to work, minds aching to create - this is man."

— John Steinbeck, American author, born 1902

"Death was a friend, and sleep was Death's brother."

— John Steinbeck, American author, born 1902

"Then it don' matter. Then I'll be all aroun' in the dark. I'll be ever'where - wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an' - I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. An' when our folks eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build, why, I'll be there."

— John Steinbeck, American author, born 1902

"Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, and emerges ahead of his accomplishments."

— John Steinbeck, American author, born 1902

"Maybe there ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue, they's just what people does. Some things folks do is nice and some ain't so nice, and that's all any man's got a right to say."

— John Steinbeck, American author, born 1902

"I shall tell them this story against the background of the county I grew up in and along the river I know and do not love very much. For I have discovered that there are other rivers."

— John Steinbeck, American author, born 1902

"I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads . . . every damn one of ’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ’em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land."

— John Steinbeck, American author, born 1902