Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
John SteinbeckRead
The bank - the monster has to have profits all the time. It can't wait. It'll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can't stay one size.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the idea that entities, like businesses, must continuously grow to survive in a competitive environment.
In this quote, John Steinbeck uses the metaphor of a 'monster' to illustrate the relentless nature of profit-driven companies, suggesting that they cannot afford to remain stagnant. The 'monster' symbolizes the pressures of capitalism, where constant growth is not only expected but required for survival; otherwise, the entity risks decline and transformation into a failed venture. Steinbeck implies that just as living beings require nourishment, businesses must continually seek profit to sustain themselves.
Themes
GrowthCapitalismProfitBusinessSurvivalCompetition
In practice
Example use cases
In a business seminar discussing the importance of innovation and staying ahead in the market.
More from John Steinbeck
All quotes →At one point, as Samuel urges Adam to raise his boys well regardless of the blood that might be in them, Adam tells him, "You can't make a race horse of a pig." Samuel replies, "No, but you can make a very fast pig.
John SteinbeckRead
And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth sift past his fingertips. No man had touched the seed, or lusted for the growth. Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread. The land bore under iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or hated, it had no prayers or curses.
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The comfortable people in tight houses felt pity at first, and then distaste, and finally hatred for the migrant people.
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People do not want advice - they want corroboration.
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It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it.
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