Louis L'Amour

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.

Sometimes we have the dream but we are not ourselves ready for the dream. We have to grow to meet it.

How long is a girl a child? She is a child, and then one morning you wake up she's a woman, and a dozen different people of whom you recognize none.

A parent or a teacher has only his lifetime; a good book can teach forever.

The best of all things is to learn. Money can be lost or stolen, health and strength may fail, but what you have committed to your mind is yours forever.

Even those who fancy themselves the most progressive will fight against other kinds of progress, for each of us is convinced that our way is the best way.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

We do not at present educate people to think but, rather, to have opinions, and that is something altogether different.

In the United States we have concentrated tremendous sums of money on the educational plant, seemingly with the idea that the right number of buildings will turn out the right number of graduates. Yet the teachers who actually instruct the future citizens of our country are more often than not miserably paid. If in the future we find ourselves with a lot of fourth-rate citizens, we have only ourselves to blame.

I am somebody. I am me. And I don't need anybody to make me somebody.

I wonder why it is the man who pleads for mercy never gives it.

Knowledge was not meant to be locked behind doors. It breathes best in the open air where all men can inhale its essence.

Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on

A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner, so if one's life is cold and bare he can blame none but himself. You have a chance to select from pretty elegant furnishings.

Today is all we have, tomorrow is a mirage that may never become reality.

The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for.