East of Eden - Quotes Study Guide

Study Guide of Quotes from East of Eden by John Steinbeck including who said the quote and who was listening/talking to them

“You’re trying to take him away! I don’t know how you’re going about it. What do you think you’re doing?” - Speaker

Charles Trask

“You’re trying to take him away! I don’t know how you’re going about it. What do you think you’re doing?” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask

“The proofs that God does not exist are very strong, but in lots of people they are not as strong as the feeling that He does.” - Speaker

Adam Trask

“The proofs that God does not exist are very strong, but in lots of people they are not as strong as the feeling that He does.” - Listener(s)

Charles Trask

Pidgin they expect, and pidgin they’ll listen to. But English from me they don’t listen to, and so they don’t understand it…That’s why I’m talking to you. You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. You see what is, where most people see what they expect.” - Speaker

Lee

Pidgin they expect, and pidgin they’ll listen to. But English from me they don’t listen to, and so they don’t understand it…That’s why I’m talking to you. You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. You see what is, where most people see what they expect.” - Listener(s)

Sam Hamilton

“We are descended from this. This is our father. Some of our guilt is absorbed in our ancestry. What chance did we have? We are the children of our father. It means we aren’t the first.” - Speaker

Adam Trask

“We are descended from this. This is our father. Some of our guilt is absorbed in our ancestry. What chance did we have? We are the children of our father. It means we aren’t the first.” - Listener(s)

Lee and Sam Hamilton

“A great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last.” - Speaker

Lee

“A great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last.” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask and Sam Hamilton

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’—that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man…why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.” - Speaker

Lee

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’—that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man…why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask and Sam Hamilton

“This is not theology. I have no bent toward gods. But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul.” - Speaker

Lee

“Dear Lord…let me be like Aron. Don’t make me mean. I don’t want to be…I don’t want to be mean. I don’t want to be lonely.” - Speaker

Cal Trask

“That’s what I hate, the liars, and they’re all liars…I love to rub their noses in their own nastiness.” - Speaker

Kate

“That’s what I hate, the liars, and they’re all liars…I love to rub their noses in their own nastiness.” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask

“Of course you may have that in you. Everybody has. But you’ve got the other too.” - Speaker

Lee

“Of course you may have that in you. Everybody has. But you’ve got the other too.” - Listener(s)

Cal Trask

“I send boys out…I sign my name and they go out. And some will die and some will lie helpless without arms and legs. Not one will come back untorn. Son, do you think I could take a profit on that?…I don’t want the money, Cal. And the lettuce—I don’t think I did that for a profit.” - Speaker

Adam Trask

“I send boys out…I sign my name and they go out. And some will die and some will lie helpless without arms and legs. Not one will come back untorn. Son, do you think I could take a profit on that?…I don’t want the money, Cal. And the lettuce—I don’t think I did that for a profit.” - Listener(s)

Cal Trask

“He’s crammed full to the top with every good thing and every bad thing.” - Speaker

Lee

“He’s crammed full to the top with every good thing and every bad thing.” - Listener(s)

Abra Bacon

“All right, I’ll tell you. No. I didn’t. Sometimes he scared me. Sometimes - yes, sometimes I admired him, but most of the time I hated him.” - Speaker

Adam Trask

“All right, I’ll tell you. No. I didn’t. Sometimes he scared me. Sometimes - yes, sometimes I admired him, but most of the time I hated him.” - Listener(s)

Charles Trask

“I hate her because I know why she went away. I know - because I’ve got her in me” - Speaker

Cal Trask

“I hate her because I know why she went away. I know - because I’ve got her in me” - Listener(s)

Lee

“I thought I had inherited both the scars of the fire and the impurities which made the fire necessary - all inherited, I thought. All inherited” - Speaker

Lee

“I thought I had inherited both the scars of the fire and the impurities which made the fire necessary - all inherited, I thought. All inherited” - Listener(s)

Cal Trask and Abra Bacon

“When a child first catches adults out – when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just – his world falls into panic desolation.  The gods are fallen and all safety gone.  And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck.  It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine.  And the child’s world is never quite whole again.  It is an aching kind of growing” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents. Some you can see, misshapen and horrible, with huge heads or tiny bodies; some are born with no arms, no legs, some with three arms, some with tails or mouths in odd places. They are accidents and no one’s fault, as used to be thought. Once they were considered the visible punishments for concealed sins.

And just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul?

Monsters are variations from the accepted normal to a greater or a less degree. As a child may be born without an arm, so one may be born without kindness or the potential of conscience. A man who loses his arms in an accident has a great struggle to adjust himself to the lack, but one born without arms suffers only from people who find him strange. Having never had arms, he cannot miss them. Sometimes when we are little we imagine how it would be to have wings, but there is no reason to suppose it is the same feeling birds have. No, to a monster the norm must seem monstrous, since everyone is normal to himself. To the inner monster it must be even more obscure, since he has no visible thing to compare to others. To a man born without conscience, a soul-stricken man must seem ridiculous. To a criminal, honesty is foolish. You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“You can boast about anything if it’s all you have. Maybe the less you have, the more you are required to boast” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“For the world was changing, and sweetness was gone, and virtue too. Worry had crept on a corroding world, and what was lost--good manners, ease and beauty? Ladies were not ladies any more, and you couldn’t trust a gentleman’s word” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“Sometimes a kind of glory lights up the mind of a man. It happens to nearly everyone. You can feel it growing or preparing like a fuse burning toward dynamite. It is a feeling in the stomach, a delight of the nerves, of the forearms. The skin tastes the air, and every deep-drawn breath is sweet. Its beginning has the pleasure of a great stretching yawn; it flashes in the brain and the whole world glows outside your eyes. A man may have lived all of his life in the gray, and the land and trees of him dark and somber. The events, even the important ones, may have trooped by faceless and pale. And then--the glory--so that a cricket song sweetens his ears, the smell of the earth rises chanting to his nose, and dappling light under a tree blesses his eyes. Then a man pours outward, a torrent of him, and yet he is not diminished. And I guess a man’s importance in the world can be measured by the quality and number of his glories. It is a lonely thing but it relates us to the world. It is the mother of all creativeness, and it sets each man separate from other men” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are not 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” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“Maybe we all have in us a secret pond where evil and ugly things germinate and grow strong. But this culture is fenced, and the swimming brood climbs up only to fall back. Might it not be that in the dark pools of some men the evil grows strong enough to wriggle over the fence and swim free? Would not such a man be our monster, and are we not related to him in our hidden water? It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“Hate cannot live alone. It must have love as a trigger, a goad, or stimulant” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“There is no dignity in death in battle. Mostly that is a splashing about of human meat and fluid, and the result is filthy, but there is a great and almost sweet dignity in the sorrow, the helpless, the hopeless sorrow, that comes down over a family with the telegram” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“A known enemy is less dangerous, less able to surprise” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“A miracle once it is familiar is no longer a miracle” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“Not being noticed at all was better than being noticed adversely” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

~~“And once a boy has suffered rejection, he will find rejection even where it does not exist--or, worse, will draw it forth from people simply by expecting it” - Speaker~~

John Steinbeck

“In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted shortcuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror. It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“And in our time, when a man dies--if he has had wealth and influence and power and all the vestments that arouse envy, and after the living take stock of the dead man’s property and his eminence and works and monuments--the question is still there: Was his life good or was it evil?” - Steinbeck

John Steinbeck

“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one, that has frightened and inspired us, so that we live in a Pearl White serial of continuing thought and wonder. Humans are caught--in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too--in a net of good and evil. I think this is the only story we have and that it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence. Virtue and vice were warp and woof of our first consciousness, and they will be the fabric of our last, and this despite any changes we may impose on field and river and mountain, on economy and manners. There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well--or ill?” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“I believe there are techniques of the human mind whereby, in its dark deep, problems are examined, rejected or accepted. Such activities sometimes concern facets a man does not know he has” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“I believe there are techniques of the human mind whereby, in its dark deep, problems are examined, rejected or accepted. Such activities sometimes concern facets a man does not know he has” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“In human affairs of danger and delicacy successful conclusion is sharply limited by hurry. so often men trip by being in a rush. If one were properly to perform a difficult and subtle act, he should first inspect the end to be achieved and then, once he had accepted the end as desirable, he should forget it completely and concentrate solely on the means. By this method he would not be moved to false action by anxiety or hurry or fear” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“A man afraid is a dangerous animal” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“It is argued that because they believed thoroughly in a just, moral God they could put their faith there and let the smaller securities take care of themselves” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“Once a woman told me that colored flowers would seem more bright if you added a few white flowers to give the colors definition” - Speaker

John Steinbeck

“Nearly all men are afraid, and they don't even know what causes their fear- shadows, perplexities, dangers without names or numbers, fear of a faceless death. But if you can bring yourself to face not shadows but real death, described and recognizable, by bullet or saber, arrow or lance, then you need never be afraid again” - Speaker

Cyrus Trask

“Nearly all men are afraid, and they don't even know what causes their fear- shadows, perplexities, dangers without names or numbers, fear of a faceless death. But if you can bring yourself to face not shadows but real death, described and recognizable, by bullet or saber, arrow or lance, then you need never be afraid again” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask

“They say man lived in trees one time. Somebody had to get dissatisfied with a high limb or your feet would not be touching flat ground now” - Speaker

Sam Hamilton

“They say man lived in trees one time. Somebody had to get dissatisfied with a high limb or your feet would not be touching flat ground now” - Listener(s)

Louis Lippo and Adam Trask

“I guess if a man had to shuck off everything he had, inside and out, he'd manage to hide a few little sins somewhere for his own discomfort. They're the last things we'll give up” - Speaker

Sam Hamilton

“I guess if a man had to shuck off everything he had, inside and out, he'd manage to hide a few little sins somewhere for his own discomfort. They're the last things we'll give up” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask

“And I guess humility must be a good thing, since it’s a rare man who has not a piece of it, but when you look at humbleness it’s hard to see where its value rests unless you grant that it is a pleasurable pain and very precious. Suffering--I wonder has it been properly looked at” - Speaker

Sam Hamilton

“And I guess humility must be a good thing, since it’s a rare man who has not a piece of it, but when you look at humbleness it’s hard to see where its value rests unless you grant that it is a pleasurable pain and very precious. Suffering--I wonder has it been properly looked at” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask

“Names are a great mystery. I’ve never known whether the name is molded by the child or the child changed to fit the name. But you can be sure of this--whenever a human has a nickname it is a proof that the name given him was wrong” - Speaker

Sam Hamilton

“Names are a great mystery. I’ve never known whether the name is molded by the child or the child changed to fit the name. But you can be sure of this--whenever a human has a nickname it is a proof that the name given him was wrong” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask

“An unbelieved truth can hurt a man much more than a lie. It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There’s punishment for it, and it’s usually crucifixion” - Speaker

Sam Hamilton

“An unbelieved truth can hurt a man much more than a lie. It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There’s punishment for it, and it’s usually crucifixion” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask

“It's because I haven't courage,” said Samuel. “I could never quite take the responsibility. When the Lord God did not call my name, I might have called his name - but I did not. There you have the difference between greatness and mediocrity. It's not an uncommon disease. But it's nice for a mediocre man to know that greatness must be the loneliest state in the world.” - Speaker

Sam Hamilton

“It's because I haven't courage,” said Samuel. “I could never quite take the responsibility. When the Lord God did not call my name, I might have called his name - but I did not. There you have the difference between greatness and mediocrity. It's not an uncommon disease. But it's nice for a mediocre man to know that greatness must be the loneliest state in the world.” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask

“I don't think so,” said Samuel. “That would be like saying there is a little bigness. No. I believe when you come to that responsibility the hugeness and you are alone to make your choice. On one side you have warmth and companionship and sweet understanding, and on the other - cold, lonely greatness. There you make your choice. I'm glad I chose mediocrity, but how am I to say what reward might have come with the other? None of my children will be great either, except perhaps Tom. He's suffering over the choosing right now. It's a painful thing to watch. And somewhere in me I want him to say yes. Isn't that strange? A father to want his son condemned to greatness! What selfishness that must be” - Speaker

Sam Hamilton

“I don't think so,” said Samuel. “That would be like saying there is a little bigness. No. I believe when you come to that responsibility the hugeness and you are alone to make your choice. On one side you have warmth and companionship and sweet understanding, and on the other - cold, lonely greatness. There you make your choice. I'm glad I chose mediocrity, but how am I to say what reward might have come with the other? None of my children will be great either, except perhaps Tom. He's suffering over the choosing right now. It's a painful thing to watch. And somewhere in me I want him to say yes. Isn't that strange? A father to want his son condemned to greatness! What selfishness that must be” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask

“Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids” - Speaker

Will Hamilton

“Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids” - Listener(s)

Dessie Hamilton

“I'd think there are degrees of greatness.” - Speaker

Adam Trask

“I'd think there are degrees of greatness.” - Listener(s)

Samuel Hamilton

“You see, there’s a responsibility in being a person. It’s more than just taking up space where air would be” - Speaker

Adam Trask

“You see, there’s a responsibility in being a person. It’s more than just taking up space where air would be” - Listener(s)

Cal Trask

 “There are no ugly questions except those clothed in condescension” - Speaker

Lee

 “There are no ugly questions except those clothed in condescension” - Listener(s)

Sam Hamilton

“No story has power, nor will it last, unless we feel in ourselves that it is true and true of us” - Speaker

Lee

“No story has power, nor will it last, unless we feel in ourselves that it is true and true of us” - Listener(s)

Sam Hamilton and Adam Trask

“We gather our arms full of guilt as though it were precious stuff” - Speaker

Lee

“We gather our arms full of guilt as though it were precious stuff” - Listener(s)

Sam Hamilton and Adam Trask

“…people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. And I here make a rule--a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting--only the deeply personal and familiar” - Speaker

Lee

“…people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. And I here make a rule--a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting--only the deeply personal and familiar” - Listener(s)

Sam Hamilton and Adam Trask

"The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved, and rejection is the hell he fears. I think everyone in the world to a large or small extent has felt rejection. And with rejection comes anger, and with anger some kind of crime in revenge for the rejection, and with the crime guilt — and there is the story of mankind" - Speaker

Lee

"The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved, and rejection is the hell he fears. I think everyone in the world to a large or small extent has felt rejection. And with rejection comes anger, and with anger some kind of crime in revenge for the rejection, and with the crime guilt — and there is the story of mankind" - Listener(s)

Sam Hamilton and Adam Trask

“Please try not to need me. That’s the worst bait of all to a lonely man” - Speaker

Lee

“Please try not to need me. That’s the worst bait of all to a lonely man” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask

“A miser is a frightened man hiding in a fortress of money” - Speaker

Lee

“They say a clean cut heals soonest. There’s nothing sadder to me than associations held together by nothing but the glue of postage stamps. If you can’t see or hear or touch a man, it’s best to let him go” - Speaker

Lee

“I know that sometimes a lie is used in kindness. I don’t believe it ever works kindly. The quick pain of truth can pass away, but the slow, eating agony of a lie is never lost. That’s a running sore” - Speaker

Lee

“Perhaps the best conversationalist in the world is the man who helps others to talk” - Speaker

Lee

“When the first innocence goes, you can’t stop--unless you’re a hypocrite or a fool” - Speaker

Lee

“You’re growing up . . . Sometimes I think the world tests us most sharply then, and we turn inward and watch ourselves with horror. But that’s not the worst. We think everybody is seeing into us” - Speaker

Lee

“Laughter comes later, like wisdom teeth, and laughter at yourself comes last of all in a mad race with death, and sometimes it isn’t in time” - Speaker

Lee

“I guess no matter how weak and negative a good man is, he has as many sins on him as he can bear” - Speaker

Lee

“All great and precious things are lonely” - Speaker

Lee

“Christopher George Leonard is a nerd” - Speaker

F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Hola, soy un candidato de BI y estoy listo para explicar esta foto” - Speaker

Christopher George Leonard

“Hola, soy un candidato de BI y estoy listo para explicar esta foto” - Listener(s)

Senora Gotuzzo

“A miser is a frightened man hiding in a fortress of money” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask

“They say a clean cut heals soonest. There’s nothing sadder to me than associations held together by nothing but the glue of postage stamps. If you can’t see or hear or touch a man, it’s best to let him go” - Listener(s)

Adam Trask

“I know that sometimes a lie is used in kindness. I don’t believe it ever works kindly. The quick pain of truth can pass away, but the slow, eating agony of a lie is never lost. That’s a running sore” - Listener(s)

Aron