Quotes from Louis L'Amour

One does not 'become' a Sun. One is or is not a Sun.

Whenever was it easy for such a man as I? The scars I carry speak of no easy times, lad

Many times the first man to move was the first to die

men must always remember, that civilization is a flimsy cloak, and just outside are hunger, thirst, and cold…waiting.

crowded with buckboards, saddle horses and men. It was ten o'clock

Man was born to die. It is our promise at birth.

him. Beaure had no idea that the Dutchman would side him against anyone, but they had worked

I despise no learning, Sakim.

When is the point at which a group of strangers becomes a community? What it is that forges the will of a people?

The idea of education has been so tied to schools, universities, and professors that many assume there is no other way, but education is available to anyone within reach of a library, a post office, or even a newsstand.

her by night, somebody gets killed, see?

In a world of many mysteries there are a few doors left slightly ajar for us to see. He who passes one of those doors may deny man knowledge precious to us.

No matter how miserable it may be, one's own home is a haven. To step through the door, drop into a familiar chair, and sleep in one's own bed is vastly comfortable. It is an escape from the world outside. It represents safety, security. Once inside the door, one can lay down the burdens of the world and relax. In a larger sense, our three-dimensional

home on furlough, his first since being assigned to Army Intelligence. She was a beautiful plane, resembling the Grumman "Widgeon" but built to certain unusual

but being human, there would be differences of opinion, for the ideal situation may exist but not ideal people. Wise

I had my father's contempt for the courtier who suspends his life from the fingertips of those in power, looking for morsels. I would be beholden to no man.

If I were asked what education should give, I would say it should offer breadth of view, ease of understanding, tolerance for others, and a background from which the mind can explore in any direction. Education should provide the tools for a widening and deepening of life, for increased appreciation of all one sees or experiences. It should equip a person to live life well, to understand what is happening about him.

A lawman," he added, "is not a restraint, but a freedom, a liberation. He restrains only those who would break the laws and provides freedom for the rest of us to work, to laugh, to sing, to play in peace.

I suspect what I was doing would be called courageous. If I rescued them, it might even be considered an heroic action, but was it? Was I not conditioned by reading, by hearing, by understanding what I should do?

kept him from going forward. His innate caution

They did not see me sitting on a rock near the water, but the air was clear and I heard their voices, and I looked into the water and wished my father would live forever.

A move well planned is a move half-done, and I tried to think through every phase. We

He wasn't tough. A tough man has to win and lose. He has to come up after being knocked down, he has to have taken a few beatings, and know what it means to win the hard way. Anybody, he said dryly, can knock a man down. When you've been knocked down at least three times yourself, and then got up and floored the other man, then you can figure you're a tough hombre.

Is a man ruled by his own free will, or is he a composite of all his experiences, his education and heredity?