Western Quotes

“Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.”
― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West

“Nox didn’t say a word. He waited, counting the seconds in his mind. Sometimes you counted bullets and sometimes you counted time. Either one could kill you.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Rustkiller

“The silence just allowed the echoes of the question to play out in Nox’s mind, reminding him of his own unwinnable war against the never-ending tide of conmen and criminals. He was trying to clean up these parts, but every time he rubbed away a stain, he found another layer of dirt beneath. So, you could give up—or you could keep on scrubbing.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Coilhunter

“My love for you won't stop with my leaving. Come an evening over the years, when you step outside your door and hear the wind blowing through the cottonwoods, that'll be me, thinking of you, whispering your name, and loving you.”
― Penelope Williamson

“Reese sucked in a breath and played faster, hurling the anger through his fingers until it spun all his
fear, all his rage, into the gentle voice of music.”
― Willowy Whisper, This Hostile Land

“There is no better place to heal a broken heart than on the back of a horse.”
― Missy Lyons, Cowboys Don't Sing

“No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck.”
― Erich Maria Remarque

“There was nothing between the ranch and the nearest town except a windy, two-lane mountain road edged with pine trees, meadows, cliffs and boulders. No Dairy Queen, no Circle K, nothing.”
― Cricket Rohman, Colorado Takedown

“Hannah is a vegetarian; Trace is a cattle rancher. Definitely, not a match made in heaven.
“A horse with a sense of humor. Was that possible?”
― Cricket Rohman, Colorado Takedown

“Hannah knelt to get a closer look at the trail of holes. “Last night’s vandal wore stilettos.”
The two men stared at her, confused.
“English, please. You’re talking to country boys.”
― Cricket Rohman, Colorado Takedown

“You know, you really don't have to kill anyone over this. I'll get an annulment. It will be like never happened"
His eyes came to her, briefly meeting her gaze before dropping to her mouth. "You'll have to make that a divorce instead"
"No you don't understand. An annulment will be much easier to obtain"
His gaze locked with hers now. Cassie became slightly breathless with the intensity of his stare.
"Not after tonight, it won't." He said in his mesmerizing drawl.
"Why?" She barely got the word out.
"Because i'm in the mood to play husband"
"You're what?"
He started toward her. She was too stunned to move, so he was there and reaching for her before she had time to think about running.
"We're having a wedding night," he said as he lifted her off her feet.--”
― Johanna Lindsey, Angel

“When Hannah Hudson finds herself abandoned on a Rocky Mountain ranch, even a lottery win doesn’t change her bad-luck life.”
― Cricket Rohman, Colorado Takedown

“In the moral realm, there is very little consensus left in Western countries over the proper basis of moral behavior. And because of the power of the media, for millions of men and women the only venue where moral questions are discussed and weighed is the talk show, where more often than not the primary aim is to entertain, even shock, not to think. When Geraldo and Oprah become the arbiters of public morality, when the opinion of the latest media personality is sought on everything from abortion to transvestites, when banality is mistaken for profundity because [it's] uttered by a movie star or a basketball player, it is not surprising that there is less thought than hype. Oprah shapes more of the nation's grasp of right and wrong than most of the pulpits in the land. Personal and social ethics have been removed from the realms of truth and structures of thoughts; they have not only been relativized, but they have been democratized and trivialized.”
― D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism

“You’re a lady. It’s written all over you, but the West doesn’t forgive any woman-unless she’s got a man.”
― Liliana Shelbrook, Lantern in the Mist

“Use your head for something more than to give your hat a ride, can't you?”
― B.M. Bower, Shadow Mountain

“But I don't know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive.”
― Alice Walker The Color Purple

“Penelope decided a crippled-up second lieutenant didn’t have much of a future in the military, as well as no longer fitting her criteria for dashing.  With encouragement from her, Bob Tregonne saw his opportunity and took it. Poor bastard. Last I heard they married and moved to Washington where Bob got a promotion and a new post. My guess, he won’t be the last of the woman’s fools, especially in Washington society. Probably be a long list of husbands and lovers in that bucket.”
― Phil Truman, Dire Wolf of the Quapaw: a Jubal Smoak Mystery

“Never been around dogs much. My mom had a collie when I was a boy, but she was a gentle animal who stayed around the house, mostly. My father, and the men he knew, all had braces of big surly hunting dogs they used for going after wild hogs. The times he took me with him on those hunts, I was more afraid of those dogs than the feral hogs. Think they could sense it. Always felt like they would’ve taken the least opportunity to sink their teeth into me.”
― Phil Truman, Dire Wolf of the Quapaw: a Jubal Smoak Mystery

“I thought about what he was saying. “Old Long Walker talked about this Dire Wolf,” I said. “Is that a man or an animal.”
“A little of both, I reckon… and neither.” He got quiet again, sipped his coffee, reading the window glass. The wind screamed and howled beyond it, out in the feral night.”
― Phil Truman, Dire Wolf of the Quapaw: a Jubal Smoak Mystery

“So that's troublin' you? I reckon it needn't. You see it was this way. I come round the house an' seen that fat party an' heard him talkin' loud. Then he seen me, an' very impolite goes straight for his gun. He oughtn't have tried to throw a gun on me - whatever his reason was. For that's meetin' me on my own grounds. I've seen runnin' molasses that was quicker'n him. Now I didn't know who he was, visitor or friend or relation of yours, though I seen he was a Mormon all over, an' I couldn't get serious about shootin'. So I winged him - put a bullet through his arm as he was pullin' at his gun. An' he droppped the gun there, an' a little blood. I told him he'd introduced himself sufficient, an' to please move out of my vicinity. An' went" - Lassiter”
― Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage

“If you ask today what art is, what its function is, what the meaning of art is and why one should create art, the answer given oftentimes by Western philosophers of art and those who special- ize in modern aesthetics is ‘‘art for art’s sake.’’ The modern response is that you just create art for the sake of art; but this was never the answer of traditional civilizations where one created art for both the sake of attainment of inner perfection and for human need in the deepest sense—because the needs of man are not only physical, they are also spiritual. We are as much in need of beauty as of the air that we breathe.”
― Seyyed Hossein Nasr, در جست‌وجوی امر قدسي

“The general’s daughter swept into the room like an angelic visitation. Never seen such a vision of the feminine in my life. It hit me between the eyes like someone pressed a live telegraph wire to the back of my head. She came amongst us boys so coquettish and alight with laughter that we all took on dumbfounded stupidity, not quite knowing what to say or how to act.”
― Phil Truman, Dire Wolf of the Quapaw: a Jubal Smoak Mystery

“I felt a hole boring through my heart. It was carving a scar that would never heal. I was a man. A man doesn't cry at lost love. Never. Instead, he turns hard. From now on, I would live up to my name"...Rattler.”
― Barry Andrew Chambers

“Furthermore, in the 13th/19th century philosophy began to see itself as a complete replacement for religion as one can see in the rise of the very idea of ideology at that time, a term used widely today even by Muslims who rarely realize the essentially secular and anti-religious character of the very concept of ideology which has gradually come to replace traditional religion in so many circles.”
― Seyyed Hossein Nasr, A Young Muslim's Guide to the Modern World

“By all the rules of modern fiction there should have been gunsmoke mingling its acrid blue with the brown haze of corral dust. Dead men should have fallen and been trampled...

Nothing of this sort happened.”
― B.M. Bower, Five Furies of Leaning Ladder

“When I envied a man's spurs then they were indeed worth coveting.”
― Zane Grey

“Many generations past, before even the Spaniards came, hundreds of years ago, maybe even thousands.” He shrugged, shook his head. “My ancestors lived along the Mississippi. Back then they were known as the Downstream People. Moundbuilders, it’s said. No one knows why they did this, not now, but most tell that the mounds were spiritual, the dwelling places for spirits, good and bad. The spirit of the Shanka’ Tunka is one kind of spirit that stayed there, an evil one. Legend has it he awakens every hundred years or so, roams the land looking for a likely soul to take, someone who ain’t too far from evil himself.”
― Phil Truman, Dire Wolf of the Quapaw: a Jubal Smoak Mystery

“Son of a bitch!" Cash erupted. "He's wearing Nate's guns."
Reese had been too occupied gazing into those eyes to notice the oddity of a gun belt strapped around a naked waist. Cash was right. Those were Nate's pretty pearl pistols. Reese had never liked those guns. He liked them even less now.
"Sullivan, ask him where he got those," Cash demanded.
"What gave you the idea I can speak Comanche?" "Because you are one?"
"You're a jackass, but I don't expect you to talk to a donkey."
"This is no time to be funny, breed."
"Then quit trying so hard.”
― Lori Handeland, Nate

“The sun glanced off a long, wicked looking knife in the Comanche's grip. At least Cash wouldn't have long to mourn. The other Indians held similar weapons, but they hung back as their leader knelt next to Sullivan. He muttered something, low and guttural, a single syllable that sounded like an insult, then picked up a lock of Sullivan's hair.
The knife descended toward his scalp.
"No!" Reese shouted. "Me."
The Comanche paused and stared at him with a spark of interest, almost admiration. But that couldn't be since the Indian had no idea what Reese was saying. He continued to try anyway.
"Me first." He struggled, wishing he could use his hands to point at himself.
"Shut the hell up, Reese," Sullivan said.
"What possible difference does it make who they kill first?" "Who knows what might happen. While they're working on me, anyone could show up and save the rest of you."
"In that case, me first," Cash drawled. "Me."
"No. Yo primero!"
"Kid, I'm the only one without a wife and far too many children. No one would miss me."
"I would." The words were punctuated by the distinct sound of a rifle being cocked. All eyes turned toward the man who had appeared at the edge of the clearing.
Cash's sigh of relief was in direct contrast to the sneer in his voice. "About damn time, Rev. We've been waitin' on you.”
― Lori Handeland, Nate

“Keep a spur handy.”
― Meg Mims, Double Crossing