Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
John SteinbeckRead
The comfortable people in tight houses felt pity at first, and then distaste, and finally hatred for the migrant people.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote illustrates the emotional progression of those who are comfortable towards those who are less fortunate.
John Steinbeck's quote reveals how people's feelings can shift from empathy to disdain when confronted with hardship faced by others. Initially, the comfort of the well-off breeds pity for the migrant people, but as the comfortable become accustomed to their own lives, their feelings evolve into distaste and ultimately, hatred, illustrating a troubling response to poverty and displacement.
Themes
EmpathyDisplacementSocial JusticePovertyHumanity
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about social issues, this quote can highlight the dangers of ignoring the struggles of others.
More from John Steinbeck
All quotes βAt 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.
John SteinbeckRead
People do not want advice - they want corroboration.
John SteinbeckRead
It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it.
John SteinbeckRead
You're going to pass something down no matter what you do or if you do nothing. Even if you let yourself go fallow, the weeds will grow and the brambles. Something will grow.
John SteinbeckRead
Similar quotes
The very good people didn't convince me; I felt they'd never been tempted. But you knew; you understood; you had felt the world outside tugging at one with all its golden hands β and yet you hated the things it asks of one; you hated happiness bought by disloyalty and cruelty and indifference.
Edith WhartonRead
Call no man happy, said Shadow, until he is dead
Neil GaimanRead
The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them.
George W. BushRead
Even if you tell yourself "Today I'm going to drink coffee the wrong way ... from a dirty boot." Even that would be right, because you chose to drink coffee from that boot. Because you can do nothing wrong. You are always right. Even when you say, "I'm such an idiot, I'm so wrong..." you're right. You're right about being wrong. You're right even when you're an idiot. No matter how stupid your idea, you're doomed to be right because it's yours.
Chuck PalahniukRead
Sometimes the Warrior feels as if he were living two lives at once.
Paulo CoelhoRead
I'm just trying to rid the world of all these fevered egos that are tainting our collective unconscious.
Bill HicksRead