Set during the Great Depression, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men tells the story of George Milton and Lennie Small, migrant farm workers in California's Salinas Valley who share the dream of someday owning a small patch of land to call home. George looks out for Lennie, a physically imposing man with the intellectual capacity of a child. Through George and Lennie's journey, Steinbeck portrays the vital need for companionship, the fleeting nature of hopes and dreams, and the harsh realities of life. First published in 1937, this novella explores social injustices, ingrained prejudices, the toll of loneliness, and the importance of empathy and hope–themes that continue to resonate, raise awareness, and inspire activism.
Here are 45+ quotes from Of Mice and Men that capture the essence of Steinbeck's powerful and timeless work.
On friendship and loyalty
"But you get used to goin' around with a guy an' you can't get rid of him."
"I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy."
"No, Lennie. I ain't mad. I never been mad, an' I ain't now."
"It's a lot nicer to go around with a guy you know, than with a guy you don't know."
“Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love.”
"All the time he done bad things, but he never done one of 'em mean."
"Guy don't need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus' works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain't hardly ever a nice fella."
“Says he foun' he jus' got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain't no good, 'cause his little piece of a soul wasn't no good 'less it was with the rest, an' was whole.”
"His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought."
"You ain't gonna leave me, are ya, George? I know you ain't."
"I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why."
On dreams and hopes
"Sure, we'd have a little house an' a room to ourself."
"It ain't no lie. We're gonna do it. Gonna get a little place an' live on the fatta the lan'."
"Someday—we're gonna get the jack together and we're gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an' a cow and some pigs... An' have rabbits."
"We got a future."
"I could build a little house."
"I could have made something of myself."
"They fell into a silence. They looked at one another, amazed. This thing they had never really believed in was coming true."
"We know what we got, and we don't care whether you know it or not."
"Go on, George! Tell about what we're gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that George."
"We'd jus' live there. We'd belong there. There wouldn't be no more runnin' round the country... No, sir, we'd have our own place where we belonged and not sleep in no bunk house."
"Tonight I'm gonna lay right here and look up. I like it."
"Le's do it now. Le's get that place now."
On loneliness and isolation
"Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world."
"I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely."
"Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody—to be near him."
"I tell ya, a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick."
"Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other."
"S'pose you didn't have nobody. S'pose you couldn't go into the bunkhouse and play rummy 'cause you was black. How'd you like that?"
"Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego—nothing to arouse either like or dislike."
"I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun. After a long time they get mean."
"You know how the hands are, they just come in and get their bunk and work a month, and then they quit and go out alone."
"A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody."
"God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy."
On life's harsh realities and disillusionment
"I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an' that same damn thing in their heads. Hunderds of them. They come, an' they quit an' go on; an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it."
"Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head."
"I think I knowed we'd never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would."
“Trouble with mice is you always kill 'em. ”
"A guy on a ranch don't never listen nor he don't ast no questions."
"I wish somebody'd shoot me when I ain't no good no more."
"I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog."
"Whatever we ain't got, that's what you want."
"Guys like us got nothing to look ahead to."
“As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.”
“Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones.”
