Favorite Quotes

I know it's a little late, but I thought I'd share some of my favorite quotes from East of Eden.


p. 257
Adam stood panting. He felt his throat where the blacksmith hands had been. "What is it you want of me?"
"You have no love."
"I had--enough to kill me."
"No one ever had enough. The stone orchard celebrates too little, not too much."

p. 260
"I want to ask you something. I can't remember behind the last ugly thing. Was she very beautiful, Samuel?
"To you she was because you built her. I don't think you ever saw her--only your own creation."
Adam mused aloud, " I wonder who she was--what she was. I was content not to know."
"And now you want to?"
Adam dropped his eyes. "It's not curiosity. But I would like to know what kind of blood is in my boys. When they grow up--won't I be looking for something in them?"
"Yes, you will. And I will warn you now that not their blood but your suspicion might build evil in them. They will be what you expect of them."

p. 262
Adam said, 'I've wondered why a man of your knowledge would work a desert hill place."

"It's because I haven't courage," said Samuel. "I could never quite take the responsibility. When the Lord God did not call my name, I might have called His name--but I did not. There you have the difference between greatness and mediocrity. It's not an uncommon disease. But it's nice for a mediocre man to know that greatness must be the loneliest state in the world."

"I'd think there are degrees of greatness,"Adam said.

"I don't think so," said Samuel. "That would be like saying there is a little bigness. No. I believe when you come to that responsibility the hugeness and you are alone to make your choice. On one side you have warmth and companionship and sweet understanding, and on the other--cold, lonely greatness. There you make your choice. I'm glad I chose mediocrity, but how am I to say what reward might have come with the other?"

p. 263
"You're getting well," Samuel said. "Some people think it's an insult to the glory of their sickness to get well. But the time poultice is no respecter of glories. Everyone gets well if he waits around."