Quotes from Louis L'Amour

A year? What is a year? All time is relative. One day may be a lifetime, a year can be forever. It is not the number of days but what goes into those days.

We both should have left the train at Salt Lake. With the Mormons, you may have to share your man but at least you've got one.

If we sit secure this hour, this day, it is because the thin walls of the law stand between us and evil. A jolt of the earth, a revolution, an invasion or even a violent upset in our own government can reduce all to chaos, leaving civilized man naked and exposed.

from down the draw, and nobody spoke. All knew that the three

No matter what happened here, what I was going to do was important. Maybe not for this town, but for men everywhere, for there must be right. Strength never made right, and it is an indecency when it is allowed to breed corruption.

off the leaves and straightened my clothes, wishing there was

Luckily, one of my teachers got me started on Plutarch and Montaigne.

altered brands.

although the place a man leaves is in the hearts of those he leaves behind, and in his work, not upon a slab Ã¢â'¬Â¦

Dealing with Indians I found them of shrewd intelligence, quick to detect the false, quick to appreciate quality, quick to resent contempt and to appreciate bravery. So much of the Indian's life was predicated upon courage that he respected it above all else. He needed courage in the hunt, and in warfare, and to achieve success within the

Dealing with Indians I found them of shrewd intelligence, quick to detect the false, quick to appreciate quality, quick to resent contempt and to appreciate bravery. So much of the Indian's life was predicated upon courage that he respected it above all else. He needed courage in the hunt, and in warfare, and to achieve success within the tribe he needed both courage and wit.

A dead man they could leave, but a wounded man they must care for.

spring and enough grass to last the burros for quite some time. After a careful scouting around, he made a fire of dead mesquite, which made almost no smoke, and fixed some coffee. When he had eaten, Dunbar gathered up his pan, pick, shovel, and rifle and moved out. He was

supreme test of all he would endure, without complaint

about him, although not many

My old Greek, who was my teacher when I was a boy in my own country," I said, "taught me this. It was a Somali saying, I believe: 'Lie to a liar, for lies are his coin; steal from a thief, for that is easy; lay a trap for the trickster and catch him at the first attempt, but beware of an honest man.

I've nothing against a man being scared as long as he does what has to be done Ã¢â'¬Â¦ being scared can keep a man from getting killed and often makes a better fighter of him.

snowed in and much of the range would be covered too deep. The outlaws were good hands up to a point, but they had no interest in the cattle, and they did not relish the idea of cutting

It is well for men to risk dangers, for we have broad backs to bear the blows, but I marvel at the courage of women who go with us, and must think of bearing children alone, and in a far place.

To a wandering man in the wilderness a back trail must be as important as that ahead, for it might be the direction taken tomorrow, and when one faced around the trail looked far, far different. Gigantic boulders seen from one direction might be low, flat rocks seen from another . . . all things were different. Studying trails had taught him much about life, that much depends on the viewpoint.

There was no such thing as human nature, if by that one believed that certain reactions and responses were typical of all men.

There was nothing but prairie and sky, the sun by day and the stars by night, and the cattle moving westward. If I live to be a thousand years old I shall not forget the wonder and the beauty of those big longhorns, the sun glinting on their horns; most of them six or seven feet from tip to tip.

Well, ma'am, he looked around.

Whoever heard of a revolution of fat men?