Quotations

"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

"Man, he lives in the jerks-- baby born an' a man dies, an' that's a jerk-- gets a farm an' loses his farm, an' that's a jerk. Woman, it's all one flow, like a stream, little eddies, little waterfalls, but the river, it goes right on. Woman looks at it like that. We ain't gonna die out. People is goin' on-- changin' a little, maybe, but goin' right on."

— John Steinbeck, American author, born 1902

"And her joy was nearly like sorrow."

— John Steinbeck, American author, born 1902

"Yes, you should talk, he said. Sometimes a sad man can talk the sadness right out through his mouth. Sometimes a killin' man can talk the murder right out of his mouth."

— John Steinbeck, American author, born 1902

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

— John Steinbeck, American author, born 1902

"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it."

— John Steinbeck, American author, born 1902

"The root of joy is gratefulness. It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful."

— David Steindl-Rast, Catholic Benedictine monk, born 1926

"Try pausing right before and right after undertaking a new action, even something simple like putting a key in a lock to open a door. Such pauses take a brief moment, yet they have the effect of decompressing time and centering you."

— David Steindl-Rast, Catholic Benedictine monk, born 1926

"If I meet other people and criticize their weaknesses, I rob myself of higher cognitive power. But if I try to enter deeply and lovingly into another person's good qualities, I gather in that force."

— Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher, born 1861

"Up until 35 I had a slightly skewed world view. I honestly believed everybody in the world wanted to make abstract paintings, and people only became lawyers and doctors and brokers and things because they couldn't make abstract paintings."

— Frank Stella, American painter, born 1936

"A man possesses talent; genius possesses the man."

— Isaac Stern, Polish violinist, born 1920

"Music is like making love: either all or nothing."

— Isaac Stern, Polish violinist, born 1920

"The poet is the priest of the invisible."

— Wallace Stevens, American poet, born 1879

"After the final NO there comes a YES and on that YES the future of the world hangs."

— Wallace Stevens, American poet, born 1879