Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
John SteinbeckRead
A town is a thing like a colonial animal. A town has a nervous system and a head and shoulders and feet. A town is a thing separate from all other towns alike. And a town has a whole emotion. How news travels through a town is a mystery not easily to be solved. News seems to move faster than small boys can scramble and dart to tell it, faster than women can call it over the fences.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote compares a town to a living organism, emphasizing its unique identity and how information spreads within it.
John Steinbeck uses the metaphor of a town as a living entity to illustrate how towns operate as complex systems with their own characters and emotions. He highlights the mysterious nature of communication within a community, suggesting that news and information flow swiftly through the town, reflecting the connections and dynamics that bind its inhabitants together. This perspective prompts reflections on the essence of community life and the unseen forces that shape social interactions.
Themes
TownCommunityCommunicationIdentitySocialDynamics
In practice
Example use cases
During a community meeting, one might reference this quote to discuss the importance of town dynamics.
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.
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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.
John SteinbeckRead
It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it.
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