Quotes from The Red Pony

John Steinbeck ·  95 pages

Rating: (42.3K votes)


“No matter how good a man is, there's always some horse can pitch him.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Red Pony


“It would be a dreadful thing to tell anyone about it, for it would destroy some fragile structure of truth. It was truth that might be shattered by division.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Red Pony


“It became his habit to creep out of bed even before his mother was awake, to slip into his clothes and to go quietly down to the barn to see Gabilan. In the grey quiet mornings when the land and the brush and the houses and the trees were silver-grey and black like a photograph negative, he stole toward the barn, past the sleeping stones and the sleeping cypress tree. The turkeys, roosting in the tree out of coyotes' reach, clicked drowsily. The fields glowed with a grey frost-like light and in the dew the tracks of rabbits and of field mice stood out sharply. The good dogs came stiffly out of their little houses, hackles up and deep growls in their throats. Then they caught Jody's scent, and their stiff tails rose up and waved a greeting Doubletree Mutt with the big thick tail, and Smasher, the incipient shepherd-then went lazily back to their warm beds. It was a strange time and a mysterious journey, to Jody -an extension of a dream. When he first had the pony he liked to torture himself during the trip by thinking Gabilan would not be in his stall, and worse, would never have been there. And he had other delicious little self-induced pains. ”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Red Pony


“The bird looked much smaller dead than alive. Jody felt a little mean pain in his stomach, so he took out his pocketknife and cut off the bird's head. Then he disemboweled it, and took off its wings; and finally he threw all the pieces into the brush. He didn't care about the bird, or its life, but he knew what older people would say if they had seen him kill it; he was ashamed because of their potential opinion.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Red Pony


“At last he said, "Did you come out of the big mountains?"
Gitano shook his head slowly. "No, I walked down the Salinas Valley."
The afternoon thought would not let Joey go. "Did you ever go into the big mountains back there?"
The old dark eyes grew fixed, and their light turned inward on the years that were living in Gitano's head.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Red Pony



“The old man slowly unwrapped the shining blade and let the lamplight slip along it for a moment. Then he wrapped it up again. 'You go now. I want to go to bed. He blew out the lamp almost before Jody had closed the door.

As he went back towards the house, Jody knew one thing more sharply than he had ever known anything. He must never tell anyone about the rapier. It would be a dreadful thing to tell anyone about it, for it would destroy some fragile structure of truth. It was truth that might be shattered by division.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Red Pony


“On the fences the shiny blackbirds with red epaulets clicked their dry call. The meadowlarks sang like water, and the wild doves, concealed among the bursting leaves of the oaks, made a sound of restrained grieving.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Red Pony


“Why, a trick horse is kind of like an actor—no dignity, no character of his own.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Red Pony


“I tell those stories, but they're not what I want to tell. I only know how I want people to feel when I tell them. It wasn't Indians that were important, nor adventures, nor even getting out here. It was a whole bunch of people made into one big crawling beast. And I was the head. It was westering and westering. Every man wanted something for himself, but the big beast that was all of them wanted only westering.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Red Pony


“He leaned his flail against the steps. ‘That’s to drive the mice out,’ he said. ‘I’ll bet they’re fat. I’ll bet they don’t know what’s going to happen to them today.’
‘No, nor you either,’ Billy remarked philosophically, ‘nor me, nor anyone.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from The Red Pony



About the author

John Steinbeck
Born place: in Salinas Valley, California, The United States
Born date February 27, 1902
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“In the excitement of a charge, or in the enthusiasm of approaching victory, there is a sense of pleasure which no one should attempt to underrate.” General Horace Porter, aide-decamp to General Grant Custer”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, quote from Crazy Horse and Custer


“The falling apart of a man's life should make more noise. It should startle passesrby with its Sturm and Drang. It ought to sound like the Parthenon crashing down. Not this ordinary, everyday kind of quiet...He closed his eyes...And still it was quiet, this falling apart of his life, as silent as the last beat of an old man's heart. A quiet, echoing thud, and then...nothing.”
― Kristin Hannah, quote from Angel Falls


“a heck of a lot of things are bound to go wrong in a world as big as this one. And if there's an answer to why it's that way - and there ain't always - why, it's probably not just one answer by itself, but thousands of answers.”
― Jim Thompson, quote from Pop. 1280 (Crime Masterworks)


“In the last hour, I have been offered immortality eight thousand times, the ship says. I hate negotiating with vasilevs.”
― Hannu Rajaniemi, quote from The Fractal Prince


“You can't just look at me like that and expect me to get over it.”
― Lisa Alfonso, quote from Believe (Rules, #1)


Interesting books

The Education of Little Tree
(12.5K)
The Education of Lit...
by Forrest Carter
Witches Abroad
(58.9K)
Witches Abroad
by Terry Pratchett
Across the Nightingale Floor
(30.4K)
Across the Nightinga...
by Lian Hearn
The Kiss of Deception
(59K)
The Kiss of Deceptio...
by Mary E. Pearson
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
(100.2K)
The Statistical Prob...
by Jennifer E. Smith
Tortilla Flat
(36.6K)
Tortilla Flat
by John Steinbeck

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.