It is my experience that in some areas [my poodle] Charley is more intelligent that I am, but in others he is abysmally ignorant. He can't read, can't drive a car, and has no grasp of mathematics. But in his own field of endeavor, which he is now practicing, the slow, imperial smelling over and anointing on an area, he has no peer. Of course his horizons are limited, but how wide are mine?
John SteinbeckDon't you dare take the lazy way. It's too easy to excuse yourself because of your ancestry. Don't let me catch you doing it! Now -- look close at me so you will remember. Whatever you do, it will be you who do.
John SteinbeckThe profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.
John SteinbeckI see too many men delay their exits with a sickly, slow reluctance to leave the stage. It's bad theater as well as bad living.
John SteinbeckThe writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spiritโfor gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.
John Steinbeck