No memory is ever alone; it's at the end of a trail of memories, a dozen trails that each have their own associations.

Carryin' a gun is a chancy thing. Sooner or later a man is put in a position to use it. And a body has to figure that if somebody packs iron he plans to use it when the time comes; and if he draws it out, he plans to shoot.

A man shares his days with hunger, thirst, and cold, with the good times and the bad, and the first part of being a man is to understand that.

Men strive for peace, but it is their enemies that give them strength, and I think if man no longer had enemies, he would have to invent them, for his strength only grows from struggle.

The deep sea can be fathomed, but who knows the heart of a woman?

The saddle is a place for dreaming when there's hours of trail ahead.

Long ago I learned nothing gets done by just wishing it. You have to do it.