Back to Steinbeck

Then there was a man, smart as satan, who, lacking some perception of human dignity and knowing all too well every aspect of human weakness and wickedness, used his special knowledge to warp men, to buy men, to bribe and threaten and seduce until he found himself in a position of great power. He clothed his motives in the names of virtue, and I have wondered whether he ever knew that no gift will ever buy back a man's love when you have removed his self-love. A bribed man can only hate his briber. When this man died the nation rang with praise and, just beneath, a gladness that he was dead. 

I will say no more, for words are dangerous these days. But my aim is clear and the subject is obvious to those of good conscience. There are good people in this world, and there are bad people in this world. That is the core essential message in East of Eden. It has been so from the beginning, ever since Cain murdered his brother Abel, and we live with this struggle from each time to the next, each life to the next, each generation to the next, until judgment day comes. The good wonder whether they have done well enough, and know that they have not, while the evil simply die.