Louis L'Amour

“Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value.”

“Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content.”

“Historical novels are, without question, the best way of teaching history, for they offer the human stories behind the events and leave the reader with a desire to know more.”

“Kill him? Would that be it? No man knew better than he the tricks that Destiny plays on a man, or how often the right man dies at the wrong time and place. A man never wore a gun without inviting trouble, he never stepped into a street and began the gunman's walk without the full knowledge that he might be a shade too slow, that some small thing might disturb him just long enough!”

“...he'd had the foresight to know that a lot of the savages wear store-bought clothes.”

“Indeed, I find that distance lends perspective and I often write better of a place when I am some distance from it. One can be so overwhelmed by the forest as to miss seeing the trees.”

“...if we are to become a land of homes and people, evil men must not be allowed to persist in their evil.”

“A wise man fights to win, but he is twice a fool who has no plan for possible defeat.”

“Books are precious things, but more than that, they are the strong backbone of civilization. They are the thread upon which it all hangs, and they can save us when all else is lost.”

“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.”

“Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen.”

“Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you.”

“Folks can’t seem to realize that it isn’t a smooth talker we need in there but a steady man, a man with judgement. Any medicine-show man can spout words, if they are written for him. It takes no genius to sound well. To act right and at the right time is something else again.”

“Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.”

“Actually, all education is self-education. A teacher is only a guide, to point out the way, and no school, no matter how excellent, can give you education. What you receive is like the outlines in a child’s coloring book. You must fill in the colors yourself.”

“To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”

“Only one who has learned much can fully appreciate his ignorance.”

“I think of myself... as a troubadour, a village storyteller, the guy in the shadows of the campfire.”

“He might never really do what he said, but at least he had it in mind. He had somewhere to go.”

“I would not sit waiting for some vague tomorrow, nor for something to happen. One could wait a lifetime, and find nothing at the end of the waiting. I would begin here, I would make something happen.”