Quotes from True Grit

“You must pay for everything in this world one way and another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God. You cannot earn that or deserve it.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“Nothing I like to do pays well.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“Lookin' back is a bad habit.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“If you want anything done right you will have to see to it yourself every time.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“But I had not the strength nor the inclination to bandy words with a drunkard. What have you done when you have bested a fool?”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“I know what they said even if they would not say it to my face. People love to talk. They love to slander you if you have any substance.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“Time just gets away from us.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“There is no knowing what is in a man's heart.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“You do not think much of me, do you, Cogburn?"

"I don't think about you at all when your mouth is closed.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. I was just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“The wicked flee when none pursueth.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“MR.GOUDY: I believe you testified that you backed away from Aaron Wharton.
MR.COGBURN: That is right.
MR.GOUDY: You were backing away?
MR.COGBURN: Yes sir. He had that ax raised.
MR.GOUDY: Which direction were you going?
MR.COGBURN: I always go backwards when I am backing up.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“We must each of us bear our own misfortunes.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“As he drank, little brown drops of coffee clung to his mustache like dew. Men will live like billy goats if they are let alone.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“Who is the best marshal they have?'

The sheriff thought on it for a minute. He said, 'I would have to weigh that proposition. There is near about two hundred of them. I reckon William Waters is the best tracker. He is a half-breed Comanche and it is something to see, watching him cut for sign. The meanest one is Rooster Cogburn. He is a pitiless man, double-tough, and fear don't enter into his thinking. He loves to pull a cork. Now L.T. Quinn, he brings his prisoners in alive. He may let one get by now and then but he believes even the worst of men is entitled to a fair shake. Also the court does not pay any fees for dead men. Quinn is a good peace officer and a lay preacher to boot. He will not plant evidence or abuse a prisoner. He is straight as a string. Yes, I will say Quinn is about the best they have.'

I said, 'Where can I find this Rooster?”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“I had hated these ponies for the part they played in my father's death but now I realized the notion was fanciful, that it was wrong to charge blame to these pretty beasts who knew neither good nor evil but only innocence. I say that of these ponies. I have known some horses and a good many more pigs who I believe harbored evil intent in their hearts. I will go further and say all cats are wicked, though often useful. Who has not seen Satan in their sly faces? Some preachers will say, well, that is superstitious "claptrap." My answer is this: Preacher, go to your Bible and read Luke 8: 26-33”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“What have you done when you have bested a fool?”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“I bought some crackers and a piece of hoop cheese and an apple at a grocery store and sat on a nail keg by the stove and had a cheap yet nourishing lunch. You know what they say, "Enough is as good as a feast.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“That's bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“If I had received good instruction as a child I would be with my family today and at peace with my neighbors. I hope and pray that all you parents in the sound of my voice will train up your children in the way they should go.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“You are a pearl of great price to me, but there are times when you are an almighty trial to those who love you.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“Nothing is too long or too short either if you have a true and interesting tale and what I call a "graphic" writing style combined with educational aims.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“She said, 'Goodbye, Reuben, a love for decency does not abide in you.' There is your divorced woman talking about decency. I told her, I said, 'Goodbye, Nola, I hope that little nail selling bastard will make you happy this time.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“On his deathbed he asked for a priest and became a Catholic. That was his wife's religion. It was his own business and none of mine. If you had sentenced one hundred and sixty men to death and seen around eighty of them swing, then maybe at the last minute you would feel the need for some stronger medicine than the Methodists could make.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“If you don't have no schooling you are up against it in this country, sis. That is the way of it. No sir, that man has no chance any more. No matter if he has got sand in his craw, others will push him aside, little thin fellows that have won spelling bees back home.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“It was still dark outside and bitter cold although mercifully there was little wind. Why is it calm in the early morning? You will notice that lakes are usually still and smooth before daybreak.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“I am ready. I have repented my sins and soon I will be in heaven with Christ my savior. Now I must die like a man.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“You go for a man hard and fast enough and he don't have time to think about how many is with him, he thinks about himself and how he may get clear out of the wrath that is about to set down on him.”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

“He drank even as he rode, which looked difficult. I cannot say it slowed him down any, but it did make him silly. Why do people wish to be silly?”
― Charles Portis, quote from True Grit

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Popular quotes

“What do I miss, as a human being, if I have never heard of the Second Law of Thermodynamics? The answer is: Nothing. And what do I miss by not knowing Shakespeare? Unless I get my understanding from another source, I simply miss my life. Shall we tell our children that one thing is as good as another-- here a bit of knowledge of physics, and there a bit of knowledge of literature? If we do so, the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation, because that normally is the time it takes from the birth of an idea to its full maturity when it fills the minds of a new generation and makes them think by it.

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