# Quote — John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America

> There used to be a thing or a commodity we put great store by. It was called the People. Find out where the People have gone. I don’t mean the square-eyed toothpaste-and-hair-dye people or the new-car-or-bust people, or the success-and-coronary people. Maybe they never existed, but if there ever were the People, that’s the commodity the Declaration was talking about, and Mr. Lincoln.

- Author: [John Steinbeck](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck.md)
- Book: [Travels with Charley in Search of America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck#Travels_With_Charley:_In_Search_of_America_(1962)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america/there-used-to

## More from this book

> I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america/i-am-in-love.md)

> Sectional football games have the glory and the despair of war, and when a Texas team takes the field against a foreign state, it is an army with banners.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america/sectional-football-games.md)

> When we get these thruways across the whole country, as we will and must, it will be possible to drive from New York to California without seeing a single thing.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america/when-we-get.md)