The Grapes of Wrath Quotes - Page 2 | Just Great DataBase

It's a thing to see when a boy comes home.

Puts a weight on ya. Goin' out lookin' for somepin you know you ain't gonna find.

He lived in a strange, silent house and looked out of it through calm eyes. He was a stranger to all the world, but he was not lonely.

And now the group was welded to one thing, one unit, so that in the dark the eyes of the people were inward, and their minds played in other times, and their sadness was like rest, like sleep.

It gives a fella relief to tell, but it jus' spreads out his sin.

And he saw the right evening star reflected in her eyes, and he saw the black cloud reflected in her eyes.

If on'y they didn' tell me I got to get off, why, I'd prob'y be in California right now a-eatin' grapes an a-pickin' an orange when I wanted. But them sons-a-bitches says I got to get off-an', Jesus Christ, a man can't, when he's tol' to!

When I was a kid my ol' man give me a haltered heifer an' says take her down an git her serviced. An' the fella says, I done it, an' ever' time since then when I hear a business man talkin' about service, I wonder who's gettin' screwed.

Casy said solemnly, "This here ol' man jus' lived a life an' just died out of it. I don't know whether he was good or bad, but that don't matter much. He was alive, an' that's what matters. An' now his dead, an' that don't matter...

[t]here ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do. It’s all part of the same thing.

The great owners, striking at the immediate thing, the widening government, the growing labor unity; striking at new taxes, at plans; not knowing these things are results, not causes. Results, not causes; results, not causes.

You're not buying only junk, you're buying junked lives. And more - you'll see - you're buying bitterness.

You was always too busy pullen' little girls' pigtails when I give you the Holy Sperit.

I'll tell ya one thing -- the jail house is jus' a kind a way a drivin' a guy slowly nuts. See? An' they go nuts, an' you see 'em an' hear 'em, an' pretty soon you don' know if you're nuts or not. When they get to screamin' in the night sometimes you think it's you doin' the screamin'--an' sometimes it is.

I know this - a man got to do what he got to do, I can't tell you. I don't think they's luck or bad luck. On'y one thing in the worl' I'm sure of, an' that's I'm sure nobody got a right to mess with a fella's life. He got to do it all hisself, Help im, maybe, but not tell him what to do.

Fella had a team of horses, had to use'em to plow an' cultivate an' mow, wouldn't think a turnin' 'em out to starve when they wasn't workin'.Them's horses - we're men.

They had long ago found out that one could not be an owner unless one were cold.

The great companies did not know that the line between hunger and anger is a thin line.

But us, we got a job to do, and there's a thousand ways, and we don't know which one to take. And if I was to pray, it'd be for the folks that don't know which way to turn.

...every one a drum major leading a parade of hurts, marching with our bitterness.

Casy gathered in his canvas sneakers and shoved his bare feet into them. "I ain't got your confidence," he said. "I'm always scared there's wire or glass under the dust. I don't know nothin' I hate so much as a cut toe.

That's what makes it ours-being born on it, working on it, dying on it. That makes ownership, not a paper with numbers on it.

There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize.

They’s a time of change, an’ when that comes, dyin’ is a piece of all dyin’, and bearin’ is a piece of all bearin’, an’ bearin’ an’ dyin’ is two pieces of the same thing. An’ then things ain’t so lonely anymore. An’ then a hurt don’t hurt so bad.

And her eyes were on the highway, where life whizzed by.

Whenever they's a fight so hungry hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever they's a cop beating up a guy, I'll be there.

I'll be ever'where–wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there..An' when our folks eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses the build–why I'll be there.

To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.

We still go where we want, even if we got to crawl for the right.' - Tom Joad (Jr.)

The preacher laughed softly. "You know," he said, "it's a nice thing not bein' a preacher no more. Nobody use' ta tell stories when I was there, or if they did I couldn' laugh. An' I couldn' cuss. Now I cuss all I want, any time I want, an' it does a fella good to cuss if he wants to.

The one-eyed man watched them go, and then he went through the iron shed to his shack behind. It was dark inside. He felt his way to the mattress on the floor, and he stretched out and cried in his bed, and the cars whizzing by on the highway only strengthened the walls of his loneliness.

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.

He stopped, feeling lonely in his long speech.

For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.

Got a lot of sinful idears--but they seem kinda sensible.

When shoes and clothes and food, when hope is gone we'll all have the rifle.

Women and children knew deep in themselves that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole.

Fear the time when the bombs stopped falling while the bombers live - for every bomb is proof that the spirit has not died. And fear the time when the strikes stop while the great owners live - for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken.

Muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need-this is man.

Don't roust your faith bird-high an' you won't do no crawlin' with the worms.

In the souls of the people The Grapes of Wrath are Filling and Growing Heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."Happy 112th Birthday John Steinbeck.

Jesus Christ, one person with their mind made up can shove a lot of folks aroun'! You win, Ma. Put away that jack handle 'fore you hurt somebody.

Woman can change better'n man," Ma said soothingly. "Woman got all her life in her arms. Man got it all in his head.

And Ma smiled sadly, "He is. Tommy's growed way up - way up so I can't get aholt of 'im sometimes.

A man so hurt and so perplexed may turn in anger, even on people he loves.

If you're in trouble or hurt or need – go to poor people. They're the only ones that' ll help – the only ones.

I wanta buy stuff. Stuff I don't need... Stuff settin' out there, you jus' feel like buyin' it whether you need it or not.-Uncle John

An' it all just amounts to what you tell yourself.

It don't take no nerve to do somepin when there ain't nothin' else you can do.

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 an' not do no murder.