And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.

—John Steinbeck

reality gratitude memory past perception bounty

About John Steinbeck

Portrait of John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck ( STYNE-bek; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and novelist. He was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception". He has been called "a giant of...

More quotations from John Steinbeck

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

—John Steinbeck

No one wants advice—only corroboration.

—John Steinbeck

The comfortable people in tight houses felt pity at first, and then distaste, and finally hatred for the migrant people.

—John Steinbeck

hatred comfort immigrants

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

—John Steinbeck

Even when I protest the assembly-line production of our food, our songs, our language, and eventually our souls, I know that it was a rare home that baked good bread in the old days. Mother's cooking was with rare exceptions poor, that good unpasteurized milk touched only by flies and bits of manure crawled with bacteria, the healthy old-time life was riddled with aches, sudden death from unknown causes, and that sweet local speech I mourn was the child of illiteracy and ignorance. It is the nature of a man as he grows older, a small bridge in time, to protest against change, particularly change for the better.

—John Steinbeck

More quotations tagged with “perception”

Low self-esteem is the belief that we are not good or worthy enough. It's a self-perception. You can be wealthy, beautiful, or well-liked by others and still don't feel good about yourself. The way other people perceive you doesn't affect your self-esteem. It's how you perceive yourself that matters.

—Yong Kang Chan in Empty Your Cup

beauty enough perception self-esteem belief wealth worth

Do you ever feel like what's happening at this moment will never happen again? Like you could never repeat it, no matter how hard you tried?

—Jennifer E. Smith in Field Notes on Love

time perception effort moment

I don't know how I got to be thirty. I don't feel thirty, the way I felt so definitely nine, and thirteen, and twenty-one.

—Rachel Khong in Vitamin

perception change age thirty 30

Isn't it such a tragic thing. When you can see it so clearly but the other person doesn't.

—Rupi Kaur in Milk and Honey

perception difference tragedy

The average person thinks he isn't.

—Father Larry Lorenzoni

perception average

History

24 Feb 2013 Added
24 Feb 2013 Edited (details weren’t recorded yet)