Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.
("East of Eden")
More Quotes from John Steinbeck:
Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased.John Steinbeck
There used to be a thing or a commodity we put great store by. It was called the People. Find out where the People have gone. I don't mean the square-eyed toothpaste-and-hair-dye people or the new-car-or-bust people, or the success-and-coronary people. Maybe they never existed, but if there ever were the People, that's the commodity the Declaration was talking about, and Mr. Lincoln.
John Steinbeck
How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can't scare him--he has known a fear beyond every other.
John Steinbeck
I think the difference between a lie and a story is that a story utilizes the trappings and appearance of truth for the interest of the listener as well as of the teller. A story has in it neither gain nor loss. But a lie is a device for profit or escape. I suppose if that definition is strictly held to, then a writer of stories is a liar - if he is financially fortunate.
John Steinbeck
He learned that when people are very poor they still have something to give and the impulse to give it.
John Steinbeck
The new American finds his challenge and his love in the traffic-choked streets, skies nested in smog, choking with the acids of industry, the screech of rubber and houses leashed in against one another while the town lets wither a time and die.
John Steinbeck
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Based on Topics: Art Quotes, Literature Quotes, Man Quotes, Mathematics Quotes, Mind Quotes, Miracles Quotes, Music Quotes, Philosophy Quotes, Place Quotes, Poetry QuotesBased on Keywords: preciousness
Ends and purposes, whether they exist as conscious or subconscious tendencies, form the wrap and woof of our conscious experience.
Muhammad Iqbal
I was the first person to have a punk rock hairstyle.
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We should learn to live and love our neighbors as ourselves for the sake of peace and progress.
David McCallum