"I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is indestructible."
— John Steinbeck (East of Eden)

"I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen."
— John Steinbeck (The Winter of Our Discontent)

"All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal."
— John Steinbeck

"No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself."
— John Steinbeck (The Winter of Our Discontent)

"Try to understand men. If you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and almost always leads to love."
— John Steinbeck

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

"When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you've got two new people."
— John Steinbeck

"Anything that just costs money is cheap."
— John Steinbeck

"The quality of owning freezes you forever in "I," and cuts you off forever from the "we."
— John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath)

"I guess I'm trying to say, Grab anything that goes by. It may not come around again."
— John Steinbeck (The Winter of Our Discontent)

"How can we live without our lives? How will we know it's us without our past?"
— John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath)