Books are the building blocks of civilization and a people without books are a people without history, a people with no story older than the tales of the oldest man or woman.

Mountains should not be judged by altitude.

He never knew when he was whipped ... So he never was.

The thieves and killers are goin' to have guns, so if the honest men don't have 'em they just make it easier for the vicious.

Trade is much superior to piracy. You can rob and kill a man but once, but you can cheat him again and again.

A great book begins with an idea; a great life, with a determination.

When at the typewriter I am no longer where I site but am away across the mountains, in ancient cities or on the Great Plains among the buffalo. Often I think of what pitiful fools are those who use mind-altering drugs to seek feelings they do not have, each drug taking a little more from what they have of mind, leaving them a little less. Give the brain encouragement from study, from thinking, from visualizing, and no drugs are needed.