Quotes from Louis L'Amour

For there are, in the affairs of men and nations, inexorable tides from which they cannot remain aloof. If they do not enter upon them prepared, they will be caught unprepared, and at the wrong time.

stiffened and his eyes narrowed. "You seem to forget that you are the girl I'm to marry," he said, in a tone less harsh. "Naturally, I don't want you around like this." "Well, until we are married," she said coldly, "it happens to be none of your business! If you'd like to change

There could be no tolerating of evil. One stamped it out or the evil grew worse.

When you and Sakim chose to come with me I accepted responsibility for your lives. I became no longer a free agent. Unless one is at heart a rascal, I think he becomes a little better in many ways by assuming leadership.

There is no reason why anyone cannot get an education if he or she wants it badly enough and is persistent.

Still, a book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think.

about Strahan? Never seen him before ... or since. Put him on a horse and tie him, McQueen said. Well give him to Foster.

that the trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for.

There are men who prefer to keep trouble from a woman, but it seems to me that is neither reasonable nor wise. I've always respected the thinking of women, and also their ability to face up to trouble when it comes, and it shouldn't be allowed to come on them unexpected. Many a man has sheltered his wife from his troubles, until suddenly he dies and she awakens to poverty as well as grief. So

It ain't so bad," he said. "There's nobody to write to. I never had nobody, Tell." "You had us, Shorty, and when we ride over the rim, we'll be lookin' for you. Keep an eye out, will you?

traveling so far across the country with this large woman, not fat mind you, but broad in the shoulder and beam, and strong.

and was on the edge of the walk

stock runnin' on the plains south of the Platte all the way

He carried himself with that impatient arrogance toward others that is often possessed by men who have succeeded by their own efforts, and too easily.

stronger? Will it be next week? Will it be next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed and a guard stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Sir, we are not weak if we make proper use of those means which the God of nature has placed in our power.

and studied the terrain. Twice that morning he had seen unshod hoofprints. There were Apaches around. He walked back to the boy and ate his share of the rabbit while Johnny was brushing the spines from a tuna the way he had shown him earlier. As the boy ate the desert fruit, he thought about how fast the morning had gone, how much he had enjoyed it. And this was the son

When little is known, much is imagined.

To be a smuggler in Britain was to be in good company, for

if he claimed there was a rock in a road at a certain point in a story, his readers knew that if they went to that spot they would find the rock

weren't getting any virgins if it was fight they wanted.

was lonely. I had to talk…to write to somebody, and there was no one." "There was. There was me.

You tried. You're too decent a man, Felton—they don't operate that way. They take decency for weakness, and weakness represents opportunity to them. You're a good man, but you've lived too long in an orderly civilization. It's different out here in the open.

when does a man leave a place he has lived without some regret? For each time some part of him is left behind. So

Don't lie to me, son, said Haskins. When you make a move that ain't called for and plumb necessary, cats will stop eating canned salmon when the tin is off! Loosen up, Jargan, and tell me what you want!