“Up to a point a person’s life is shaped by environment, heredity, and changes in the world about them. Then there comes a time when it lies within their grasp to shape the clay of their life into the sort of thing they wish it to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune or the quirks of fate. Everyone has the power to say, "This I am today. That I shall be tomorrow.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“Reading without thinking is nothing, for a book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“A ship does not sail with yesterday's wind.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“The mind is a basket . . . if you put nothing in, you get nothing out.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“Up to a point a man’s life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about him; then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say, this I am today, that I shall be tomorrow. The wish, however, must be implemented by deeds.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“There are many ways of fighting. Many a man or woman has waged a good war for truth, honor, and freedom, who did not shed blood in the process. Beware of those who would use violence, too often it is the violence they want and neither truth nor freedom.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“Reading without thinking is as nothing, for a book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“Yol Bolsun" (May there be a road) [Louis L'Amour}”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“Evil comes often to a man with money; tyranny comes surely to him without it. I say this, who am Mathurin Kerbouchard, a homeless wanderer upon the earth's far roads. I speak as one who has known hunger and feast, poverty and riches, the glory of the sword and the humility of the defenseless. Hunger inspires no talent, and carried too far, it deadens the faculties and destroys initiative...”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“A knife is sharpened on stone, steel is tempered by fire, but men must be sharpened by men.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“The best of all things is to learn. Money can be lost or stolen, health and strength may fail, but what you have committed to your mind is yours forever.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“Can you see the future, Kerbouchard?"
"Who would wish to? Our lives hold a veil between anticipation and horror. Anticipation is the carrot suspended before the jackass to keep him moving forward. Horror is what he would see if he took his eyes off the carrot.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“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. (said by the author to be a Somali saying)”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“He is a fool who will descend into a well on another man's rope.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“Victory is not won in miles but in inches.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“I learned then that many a victory is easier won with words than a sword—and the results are better.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“Such are the amenities of social life, which oft makes a liar of the best of men.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“The mind gathers its grain in all fields, storing it against a time of need, then suddenly it bursts into awareness, which men call inspiration or second sight or a gift.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“If at any time your Prince should pretend your position with him is sure, begin from that moment to feel unsure.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“He had gathered about him what was considered by many to be the intellectual and artistic elite . . . actually, a group of bored men and libertines who were glib-tongued, talking much of art, literature, and music but without any deep-seated convictions upon any subject aside from their own prejudices. Mainly concerned with their own posturing, they were creatures of fad and whim, seizing upon this writer or that composer and exalting him to the skies until he bored them, then shifting to some other. Occasionally, the artist upon whom they lavished attention were of genuine ability, but more often they possessed some obscurity that gave the dilettantes an illusion of depth and quality. In the majority of cases what was fancied to be profound was simply bad writing, bad painting, or deliberately affected obscurity.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“Many a small man is considered good while he remains small, but let power come to him, and he becomes a raging fury.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
“Must one seek something? I seek to be seeking, as I learn to be learning. Each book is an adventure as is each day’s horizon.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum
Louis L'Amour
Born place: in Jamestown, North Dakota, The United States
Born date March 22, 1908
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“I think that sometimes things just get confusing and we get lost, and sometimes you can't figure out which path is the right path... which is the right decision. Quit or move forward. Heal or break. Fight or die.I'm still figuring that out.”
― Jessica Sorensen, quote from Breaking Nova
“Alric looked at Reuben. “Is he telling the truth? I can have him ripped apart by dogs, you know. I love dogs. We use them to hunt, but they aren’t allowed to actually take down or eat their quarry. Always thought that was a shame, you know? I think they would appreciate the opportunity. It could be fun too. We could just let these fools run and bet on how far they can get before the dogs catch them.”
“I bet Horace doesn’t make it to the gate,” Mauvin said; then all heads turned to Reuben.
Ellison looked at him, too, his face frozen in a tense, wide-eyed stare.
“I wasn’t aware of any threat from Squire Ellison, Your Highness,” Reuben replied.
“Are you sure?” Alric pressed, and flicked a small yellow leaf off Ellison’s shoulder. “We don’t have to use the dogs.” He smiled and tilted his head toward the Pickerings. “They’d love to teach them a lesson, you know. In a way they’re a lot like hunting dogs—they never get the chance to kill anyone either. Ever since they reached their tenth birthday, no one has been stupid enough to challenge them.”
“I was, Your Highness,” Reuben said.
That got a laugh from the Pickerings and the prince, although Reuben didn’t know why. “Yes, you did, didn’t you?”
“That’s why you’re our friend,” Mauvin explained.
“He didn’t know who we were,” Fanen pointed out. “He had no idea about the skill of a Pickering blade.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Reuben said. His blood was still up from the fight, and his mouth ran away with him. “If I thought you were there to harm the princess, I would still have fought you.”
A moment of silence followed this and Reuben watched as Alric smiled; then he glanced at Mauvin and they laughed again. “Tell me, Hilfred, how are you at catching frogs?”
― Michael J. Sullivan, quote from The Rose and the Thorn
“أمن أجل ذلك صُنع الخلود، لكي يخوض المرء في تفاصيل عمره؟”
― Philip Roth, quote from Indignation
“If you are stealing something it’s better if it’s small and hideable or something you can eat quickly and be done with, like guavas. This way, people can’t see you with the thing to be reminded that you are a shameless thief and that you stole it from them, so I don’t know what the white people were trying to do in the first place, stealing not just a tiny piece but a whole country. Who can ever forget you stole something like that?”
― NoViolet Bulawayo, quote from We Need New Names
“It’ll take years of therapy. Probably for all of us: a long uphill battle. But we’re still on the field fighting the good fight, battered and beaten though we are, and I understand just what a great gift that is.”
― Patricia Briggs, quote from Dead Heat
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The Good DaughterBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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