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Quotes from Nobel Prize acceptance speech — John Steinbeck

1902–1968 United States

← All quotes by John Steinbeck

7 quotes

Humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion.

Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)

Faulkner, more than most men, was aware of human strength as well as of human weakness.

Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)

Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed.

Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)

In the end is the Word, and the Word is Man — and the Word is with Men.

Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)

We have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to God.
Fearful and unprepared, we have assumed lordship over the life or death of the whole world — of all living things.

Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)

Such is the prestige of the Nobel award and of this place where I stand that I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession and in the great and good men who have practiced it through the ages.

Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)

The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.

Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Steinbeck (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.