Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
John SteinbeckRead
Intentions, good or bad, are not enough. There's luck or fate or something else that takes over.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Good intentions alone do not guarantee outcomes; external factors also play a significant role.
This quote by John Steinbeck emphasizes that human intentions, whether positive or negative, are often insufficient on their own to determine the results of our actions. It suggests that factors beyond our control, such as luck or fate, significantly influence the direction of our lives and the success of our endeavors, highlighting the complexity of existence and decision-making.
Themes
IntentionsLuckFateOutcomesControl
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational seminar to illustrate the importance of both effort and external circumstances.
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
The comfortable people in tight houses felt pity at first, and then distaste, and finally hatred for the migrant people.
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
Similar quotes
The scripture in times of disputes is like an open town in times of war, which serves in differently the occasions of both parties.
Alexander PopeRead
The greatest dread of ordinary man is death, with its rude imposition interrupting fortuitous plans and fondest attachments with an unknown and unwelcome change. The yogi is a conqueror of the grief associated with death. By control of mind and life force and the development of wisdom, he makes friends with the change of consciousness called death-he becomes familiar with the state of inner calmness and aloofness from identification with the mortal body.
Paramahansa YoganandaRead
Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying that you want a country based on Christian values. Because you don't!
John FugelsangRead
He had had a severe shock some weeks earlier, when, having narrowly failed to capture a large grey-brown hare for his dinner, it had stopped at the edge of the forest, looked at him with disdain, and said, 'Well, I hope you're proud of yourself, that's all,' and had scampered off into the long grass
Neil GaimanRead
It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead